Almost Human
by Spacefille
Summary: Takes place five years in the future. Zim is dying, and life changes permanently for Gaz when she decides to help out the little alien her brother hates. Contains mild ZAGR. Beware the rain. Complete
1. Changes

**Almost Human  
**~~~

**Date**: Dec. 2002 - Feb. 2002  
**Warning**: Spoilers for various parts of the show. Maybe OOC. (I hope it's not too bad, I tried my best to keep the individuals in character.)  
**Author's Notes**: This takes place 5 years after the end of the series. It is my first and probably last attempt at a "ZAGR" fic. "ZAGR" means Zim and Gaz Romance for all those newbies, (like I was a month and a half ago), who don't know. The themes in this fic are very common ones... I started writing this before I read anyone else's fanfiction, and have come to realize that some things in here have been done all ready. Several times. *sighs* I hope you enjoy it anyway.  
This fic is finished. :)  
**Disclaimer**: Invader Zim was created by Jhonen Vasquez and belongs to Nickelodeon, not me, and I am not making any profit off of the following work of fiction. 

~~~

Part 1 - Changes

Gaz sighed as she rolled over and burrowed deeper into her silken quilt. She didn't want to go to skool. Of course she never wanted to go to skool, because doing so meant that she would have to associate with the other stupid members of her race. But this morning she especially didn't want to. It had to do with the weather no doubt.

It was raining. Heavily. Unlike most teenagers her age who really liked the rain, Gaz hated it. That probably had something to do with the fact that it seemed that every time she went out in a rainstorm, she would get wet, no matter how many precautions she took. She tried everything from wearing several layers of raincoats to using the largest, sturdiest umbrella in the world, all to no avail. Of course, her getting wet was usually directly related to her brother, Dib and the alien, Zim. She usually went where ever her brother went, and her brother usually went where ever Zim went, and whenever it rained her brother always tried his best to get Zim wet. And it almost always backfired onto her.

So she was seriously considering staying in bed today. She half shut her eyes and had almost dozed off again when her brother screeched at her from down in the living room. 

"GAZ!" Dib shouted. "Are you coming to skool?" and then a minute or so later: "If you don't come to skool Gaz, I'll tell Dad!!"

Sighing, and muttering about how much she would like to kill her brother, Gaz slowly crawled out of bed. 

Gaz took the necessary precautions that day, packing an umbrella AND three layers of raincoats, even though she was fairly certain that she would get very wet anyway. She wondered why she bothered.

She watched her brother out of the corner of her eye as they made their way through the puddles towards the skool, knowing *exactly* why his eyes darted about eagerly with that particular gleam in them. She sighed more than once to herself and hung back. Far back.

However no little alien disguised as a human made his appearance on the way to skool. Dib was more than a little disappointed, she could tell by the look on his face as they neared the run down high skool building. 

They separated once they reached the grounds and she went to walk over to where the people in her grade usually hung out, but not before she caught the confused look on her brother's face. She followed his gaze. She found what he was looking at, and stared herself. 

It was Zim. Standing huddled beneath an over hang of the roof, he had his arms wrapped around himself as if to ward off the cold. His eyes were cast downward and he looked...

Well he looked absolutely miserable. 

Despite any apparent miserableness on Zim's behalf, Dib still took the opportunity to rile the green skinned alien at any chance he got that day. It disgusted Gaz. She knew that, despite the fact that they were in high skool now and all such pettiness on the behalf of students where usually left behind, her brother was still one of the loser kids in the skool. Of course she was pretty low on the social latter herself, but that still didn't mean that she made anyone else suffer because of it. Not her brother however. Oh no. Zim was probably the only one lower than her brother, if life must be judged according to popularity, but at least Zim was basically ignored by the rest of the students. The only person dedicated to making his life miserable was her own miserable brother. 

If she were asked, she would say that her brother had it good. No one ever picked on him anymore, unless of course he chose to open his stupid mouth and begin prattling about the paranormal. Or blabbing about certain members of the student body being aliens. Zim wasn't nearly as lucky. She watched as her brother tripped the little alien before classes that day then laughed uproariously. All of the students around Dib either ignored him, like she did, or glared and muttered under their breath as they moved off to their classes. 

"What's the matter ZIM?" She listened to her brother taunt as she began walking away. "Weren't you watching where you were going?" 

She paused, listening without turning back around, for Zim's response. Even after "knowing" each other for five years, Zim usually came up with the same kind of responses to any of Dib's attacks. They usually included insults like "Stupid human" or "filthy stink-beast" and were often followed up with egotistical ranting. ("I am ZIM!") If she were asked, she'd even insinuate that the two enjoyed it. They probably did.

Today she heard nothing. Hmm... She thought to herself, that's odd. Turning, she took in the scene behind her. 

She was met with a surprise. She watched Zim pick himself off of the ground. The small alien brushed off his pants once, twice, then seemed to give up. His shoulders slumped forwards and he walked away quietly, his head still down. 

That... now that wasn't normal.

Her eyes met Dib's for a fleeting instant. Her brother wore an incredulous look on his face and his jaw hung open in disbelief. 

She joined Dib in the cafeteria later that day. She settled down next to him and opened her game pack like she always did between classes. The years had done little or nothing to wean her from her most addicting habit. She just had a newer system now. The Game Slave 6. 

She became aware of the fact that her brother was being oddly quiet and still (for him) half way into the second level of her game. She frowned and paused her game, raising her head. She wasn't used to her brother being quiet. She looked up at him. He was staring off at another part of the cafeteria, a deep thinking frown on his face. She followed his gaze, and then frowned herself. 

It was Zim. The little alien sat perched on a chair across the room, at the end of a long table occupied by other people. That was strange in of its self... Zim ALWAYS sat alone. People had become quite used to him being alone, and unlike elementary skool, nobody really cared whether you had friends or not here in high skool. The skool was much too large. That wasn't what made her frown though, it was the fact that Zim would often glance at the people he sat with, then flinch and look back down at his food again. Then he would look up and the process repeated. The people he sat beside, for their part, ignored him.

She suddenly felt an unexpected flash of pity for Zim. It looked like he actually wanted to make a serious effort at being social, and it looked like that attempt was failing miserably. She doubted that the people Zim sat next to even knew he was there. 

Apparently they were about to find out. 

She glared at her brother's back as he got up from the table and slowly made his swaggering way over to the new table. She knew what he was going to do even before he reached Zim and smirked down at him. Muttering under her breath, Gaz got up from the table as well.

Dib's words rang in her ears as she approached. "Hey ZIM," He taunted. "Trying to make friends with HUMANS are we?" 

Gaz fully expected Zim to retort in the way he hadn't that morning in the hall. This was a little much, and a lecture on the greatness of Zim was bound to begin. Instead Zim surprised both of them further by opening his mouth, then shutting it again. Gaz watched as his cheeks flushed a deeper green then usual and he glanced at the people he shared a table with. They all stared back, uncertain as to what to make of these people who had disturbed their conversations. Zim looked away again, flushing deeper, then got up from the table with a quiet "excuse me". Gripping his tray, he turned and marched off through the cafeteria. 

She casually walked up and stood next to her brother, watching his face as confusion ran across it again. He opened his mouth anyway though, to yell after the retreating alien, only to receive an elbow in his ribs. Hard. Gasping he turned. "Gaz?" He questioned. 

"Leave him alone." Gaz said. It was one thing to let her brother pick on Zim when it was obvious that both her brother and the little alien got some sort of twisted joy out of their stupid little battles... it was another when the battles where decidedly one sided.

Zim wasn't in skool the next day, which wasn't entirely unusual for the green skinned alien. It also meant that she didn't have to listen or see her brother pick on him, which was a welcome relief. 

Zim made an appearance the day after that, but only for a little while. For what little Gaz saw of the alien, she honestly had to say he looked awful. His hair, which her brother and her both knew was a wig, was slightly askew and his eyes looked like they had huge circles under them. He didn't look up at any one, not once, and instead slouched through the halls, dejected and alone. Before lunch he had disappeared again, much to her brother's immense disappointment. 

The next day there was no sign of Zim again, and her brother began to rant.

She personally hated it when her brother ranted. She tuned him out, knowing that it was the same old gibberish as all the many many times before. Blah blah, Zim is up to something, blah, blah, must save the world, blah blah. She had no idea why Dib wanted to save the world anyway, it was a stupid pathetic place, undeserving of saving. She had said so often enough herself. Not only that, if Zim hadn't managed to destroy the world in the space of five years, she hardly doubted that he was going to do it now. She knew that her brother, deep down knew that as well. Sometimes she thought he ranted just to hear himself speak. That was annoying too. No one ever cared what she thought though. 

She deliberately ignored her brother when he said that he was going to go over there and demand that Zim tell him what he was up to. She ignored him when he came back an hour or so later, steaming. Literally. He hadn't been able to break into Zim's base. Again. The little alien must have updated his defenses. Also again.

That made up the day's entertainment for the next week or so. Every evening, Dib would do everything in his power to try to break into Zim's base. Every evening Dib would return, burnt, slightly smoking and very unsuccessful. It was enough to drive her brother crazy, the fact that he couldn't get near his mortal enemy and only source of entertainment any longer. And Zim wasn't coming to skool... 

It took about a week, but Gaz finally began to become concerned with Zim's prolonged absence from skool. That day Dib had insisted that they take the long way to skool, which included walking past Zim's "house". As they stopped in front of the house, Gaz looked up from the novel she was reading long enough to get a good look at it. What she saw startled her. She hadn't expected it to look so... vacant. The lights were off in the house that usually let off an eerie green glow, and the curtains were all drawn. The lawn had grown high and unkempt, nourished by recent rainfall. The lawn gnomes glared at them with their reddened eyes and... 

"Get down!" Gaz snapped at her brother, shoving them both out of the way and into the street. At the same time several laser zaps hit the ground where they had been standing. 

Her brother was back on his feet and ranting in an instant. "Damn you Zim!" He was saying, shaking a fist at the house. "I'll get in there, just you wait and see!" 

Gaz rolled her eyes. "Leave him alone." She growled. She was already walking down the street away from the house, her nose back in her book again. "It's obvious that he just wants to be left alone." 

"Yeah but..." Her brother had to jog to keep up with her. "What about the world??" He asked. "He could be planning the end of the world!" 

Gaz turned on her brother, her eyes blazing. "Or maybe he got sick and tired of you being an ass to him and decided that he just wanted to be left alone!!" She snapped. "Five years is kinda a long time. I told you Dib," She continued, even as when to turn her attention back to her book. "If the world hasn't ended by now, it's not going to. Now shut the hell up before I hurt you." 

Dib didn't reply, but right before Gaz turned back around she caught the slightly stung look on her brother's face. She ignored it. One of these days her brother was going to have to learn that he couldn't make friends by picking on them. If Zim was done playing around, then so be it. 

~~~

It was in the middle of class that day when Gaz decided to do something about Zim herself. She wasn't usually one to be too concerned with either her brother or her brother's best enemy and only friend. But Zim's recent behavior struck her as very... different. It was different in a way that caused her to be concerned not for the end of the world or anything stupid like that, but in a way that made her concerned for *him*. She knew about as much as her brother did about Zim, as she made it her job to know about everything around her. She just appeared not to care about things she knew about and usually she didn't. 

However in this case... in this case she did care.

Maybe just a little bit. But it was enough. She knew Zim well enough to know that the little ego-maniac put up a huge front the vast majority of the time. Sure, he probably didn't at first... as much of his ego stemmed from the fact that he was sure he was better than any of the rest of them. But she had a feeling that over the years he had perhaps become a little more human than he had ever expected. Though they rarely, if at all, got to see what was really underneath that front Gaz knew that a little more of the real Zim had been shown to them last week when her brother picked on him. 

Either that or something horrible had happened to the little invader. 

She frowned as she thought, considering. She had half a mind to trek over there and find out what it was that was bothering Zim. Maybe if she found out it would stop her brother from trying to find out...

But then why did she care anyway?

She grumbled to herself and told herself that she didn't care. In actuality she did though, no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise. It was a VERY well hidden fact that NO one would ever know... she sorta liked her brother's sworn enemy. How could she not? They were so much alike, both of them hated the vast majority of the human race... Zim was just stupider. And naive. And louder. Very loud. Prone to rants... She winced.

Okay, that didn't help her any. She shook her head slightly, then considered. How or when would she go and check on him then? 

The answer came in to her the middle of Gym class. It was when she found out that they had to do forty laps around the skool's field, to be precise. When she discovered that she wasn't allowed to skip out of the class due to feminine problems, which was her favorite excuse, she merely grabbed her bag and half jogged to the end of the skool field. There she slowed to a walk... and kept right on walking.

Zim's house greeted her exactly the same way as it had that morning on the way to skool. Frowning, Gaz put down her book bag on the sidewalk in front of the house and stepped cautiously back into the street. She waited. A couple of the lawn gnomes swung their heads towards the sidewalk but none of them shot at her or her bag. 

"Hmm." Gaz moved back to the sidewalk. She shouldered her bag. The lawn gnomes watched her. She watched them back. Finally judging that a safe amount of time had gone by without them shooting at her, she shrugged and walked up the sidewalk of Zim's base. The gnomes let her go by without even charging up. 

She gave the gnomes one last suspicious glance over her shoulder, then knocked on the door. "Hello?" She grunted. When no one answered it, she shrugged and tried the handle. It opened with ease. 

"Oookay." Gaz muttered as she pushed inside. Usually if she wanted to get inside something she had to pick the lock. Or short it, depending on what kind of lock it was. "That was almost too easy," She muttered to herself. 

The inside of Zim's house was deadly quiet and dark as she walked inside. "Hello?" She called out. There was no answer. 

Frowning, Gaz reached over to one of the windows, carefully pulling the blind back. Instant sunlight flooded the vacant room. Gaz blinked, then waved the dust away from her nose. The living room area of the creepy house was just the same way as she remembered it. A distorted picture of a monkey's head hung above the now battered and worn couch. Opposite it sat Zim's freaky robot's huge entertainment center. It was also turned off. 

Gaz looked about the room, puzzled. Then she moved towards the kitchen. Flicking on a light switch, she called out again. "Hello?" 

For some reason her voice echoed back at her. 

That was... odd. 

A short inspection of the room revealed that a clothing chute of some sort sat beside the counter, it's lid open. Gaz walked over to it and peered down it. All she could see was darkness. For a moment she considered, then decided against it. She wasn't stupid enough to go wandering down a chute she wasn't all that sure she could get up again, even if she knew it would get her inside Zim's base. Instead she walked to the living room and purposely moved one of the end tables aside. She smiled as she found what she wanted. Instantly a glowing panel slid open on the floor. Gaz readjusted her bag on her back and stepped on it. She clutched her stomach as the elevator began it's lurching decent into the bowels of the earth. 

The elevator deposited Gaz several layers down, the transparent door swinging open to reveal a room full of computer equipment and machinery. Narrowing her eyes, Gaz hesitantly stepped into the room, only to be knocked off of her feet as the elevator decided to re-accend quickly. She shook her fist at it, before returning her attention to the room she was now in. 

"Hello?" She questioned again. She didn't know why she bothered. There was nobody here. 

Which was why she was so surprised when someone did answer her. "Yes?" Rumbled the computer. 

Gaz nearly jumped out of her skin. She recovered quickly, remembering that the computer knew her from a couple of years previous. She believed she had asked it if it had any video games. No matter. She walked over to the control panel. "Computer, where's Zim?" She demanded to know.

The computer rumbled for a bit, then a detailed schematic appeared on it's giant screen. Gaz blinked at it. It had several rounded layers with floors in them, and many winding tunnels connecting the floors. It took the teenaged girl about a half a second to realize that she was more than likely looking at the plans for the base. Her thoughts were confirmed when the computer spoke again. "He's two levels down and to your right." it replied. At the same time a giant arrow flashed on the screen, pointing to that part of the map. 

"Thanks computer." Gaz said. She turned, her eyes quickly scanning the room for any doors or exits which would lead down to Zim.

"Before you go..." the computer continued, unexpected. Gaz turned back to it. 

"Would you give this to him?" the computer asked. At the same time a piece of the floor burst out of place, right beside Gaz, and carried up a tray towards her hand level. In the tray lay a device that looked like a large syringe, complete with a pale blue liquid splashing about inside of the canister. 

Gaz took it hesitantly. "What is it?" She asked, mildly curious. 

The computer made a sound that came across suspiciously like a snort. "It's his vaccine. He can't really get better if he doesn't take it now can he?" The low voice seemed to grumble. "Oh yes, and the door is that way." At that moment a door across the room slid open, even though Gaz could have sworn that there had been no door there a moment before. It revealed a dimly lit hall behind it. 

"Thanks computer." Gaz mumbled. With that she leapt off the platform and made her way towards it. 

After several minutes of wandering around in the dark, getting lost, and then reorienting herself, Gaz was beginning to wish she was in Gym class still. The whole entire base reeked of dust and disuse, and there where more than enough random pieces of machinery sticking all about that if she tripped on them she could seriously injure herself. When she decided to check and see if Zim was okay, she hadn't expected the whole procedure to take up her entire afternoon. Of course she never expected to discover that Zim was injured or sick somehow, as the vaccine obviously indicated. Worried, she glanced back at her bag where she had placed the syringe, then continued to stomp down the dim corridors. 

Several minutes later, she had started yelling. "ZIM!" She shouted as she came to yet another dead end. "Damn it, where are you?!" She turned about and went back to the main corridor, walked down it a bit farther and tried another hall.

This hall was different than the rest. It wasn't lit at all, making the machinery that lined it stand out in sharp shadows. Gaz hesitated for a long moment, her normally squinted eyes widening. After a moment she steeled herself. "It's just like a video game, Gaz," She muttered at herself, stepping into the corridor. Almost instantly she tripped over something and fell over on her hands and knees. 

"What the f---?" She muttered, turning about to peer behind her. Perplexed she picked up the egg shaped object she had tripped over. She very nearly dropped it again, her breath catching in her throat. It was a robot's head. Zim's robot. Dulled blue eyes stared back at her as she held it. 

His name was GIR or something like that, she thought, remembering the name that both Dib and Zim had called the little 'bot. "GIR?" She questioned out loud. 

The robot didn't answer her of course, as it was detached from it's body and more than likely not operational presently. Sucking in a breath through her teeth, she tucked the robot's head under her arm and continued down the hall, muttering darkly about Zim and what she'd do with him once she found him. 

At the end of the hall she came to a door. It was completely dark except for a small glowing panel with several symbols on it. After narrowing her eyes at it for several seconds, she tapped on a couple of them. Amazingly enough the door slid open on the second try. 

That was easy, Gaz thought to herself. Shrugging, she stepped inside. There she stopped, squinting. There were no lights on inside. There were no light and she couldn't see a thing, except for a single beam of red laser which sliced through the air, made it's way down her face, and finally came to rest on the center of her chest. She stared.

"Well, well," A snide but very familiar voice cackled at her. "I see you've found a way into my base, DIB. Congratulations. Too bad for you that you'll never be leaving here... alive that is!" 


	2. Hurt

**Note**: I am personally unhappy with this part. Looking back I find that it is far too angsty and little bit OOC. Ah well. It gets better in the next part. :)

~~~

Part 2 - Hurt

Gaz knew it had been a mistake to see if Zim was okay. However she hadn't been quite aware of how incredibly bad that idea was until she actually got there. It didn't hit home until she stepped into a darkened room, and found herself at gun, or rather laser, point. 

"Well, well," A snide but very familiar voice had cackled at her. "I see you've found a way into my base, DIB. Congratulations. Too bad for you that you'll never be leaving here... alive that is!"

Gaz allowed herself the smallest smirk. He thought she was Dib. Ignoring the fact that she was presently at laser point, she brought her arms forwards and held Gir's head out in front of her. "Do you want your robot back?" She asked dryly. "I found part of him."

She heard the gasp, rather than saw it. A muffled "What?" reached her ears, and then the lights flared on. She squinted even more in the almost too bright light, then brought her gaze down to focus on the little alien. 

Zim looked terrible. Despite the fact that he held a laser gun in his hands and his voice obviously hadn't suffered any, the alien himself looked more than a little battered. His skin was no longer a healthy shade of green, but rather a pale pale near white color. There were dark hollow smudges under dulled red eyes that no longer gleamed sadistically like she remembered the one or two times she had seen him out of his human costume. "Gaz?" He questioned thickly as he stared at her. His hands dropped, the laser target falling harmlessly towards the floor. Then his eyes narrowed. "How did you get in here?" He asked suspiciously.

She shrugged. She was going to say 'the back way' but she was fairly sure than Zim didn't have a back entrance. "The front door." She said honestly. 

"The front door??" Zim looked like he absolutely did not believe her. "The gnomes are programmed to destroy all humans that dare trespass on the property of ZIM!"

Gaz shrugged again. "Guess I'm not human then," She replied blithely. Ignoring the incredulous 'you're not serious... are you?' look the alien gave her, she reached around to her bag and pulled out the syringe the computer had given her. "The computer gave this to me." She said. "He said it's for you." She held it away from Zim as the alien reached for it. "Ahahaha." She reprimanded, burying it back into the folds of her trench coat. She gave the alien an appraising look. "Not until you tell me what's wrong with you, Zim." 

Zim retracted his hand, giving her a wide-eyed look. "Wrong with me?" He questioned, sounding incredulous. 

Gaz stared at the alien. Zim stared back, then Gaz watched as he seemed to think for a moment, then very deliberately pasted an innocent look on his much too pale face. 

He was really bad at looking innocent, Gaz thought. She also found it very irritating when people played dumb with her. She gritted her teeth for a moment, then turned. "Damn it Zim!" She kicked a leg of a table which was situated off to her side. "Don't give me that." She said darkly. "I know there's something wrong with you."

Zim flailed his hand in the air. "ME?" He stated. "There is nothing wrong with ZI--"

"SHUT. UP." Gaz snapped. She took a bit of pleasure in seeing the alien blink at her, looking somewhat shocked. Hoping that she had convinced him to actually COMMUNICATE with her like a normal person, she continued, much more calmly this time. "Look at you. You look like hell warmed over." She sighed at the 'so?' look that flashed across the alien's face. "You haven't been in skool in over a week and your computer told me that you can't get better until you take this." She held up the syringe again.

"Oh." Gaz watched as the alien's lip curled up. "That's what that's for." He turned away. "Destroy it." He said with an abrupt wave of dismissal.  
Gaz's jaw threatened to drop. After a moment she frowned. "Zim?" She questioned, confused. "But what...?"

Zim turned back around abruptly, a dangerous look on his alien face. "I said destroy it!" He hissed. And then he rushed at her. 

More than a little shocked, Gaz just barely managed to leap out of the way as clawed hands came at her. She was on her feet in an instant, and running and dodging past tables in an attempt to get away. She could hear Zim following closely behind her, at least for a little bit, and wondered why she saw flashes of metal flying at her out of the corner of her eyes. She never turned around to look. Instead she made it to the back of the room and hunched down behind one of the tables; the syringe still safely clenched in her hands. "Not till you tell me what's wrong!" She shot back at the alien. 

Silence followed her words... Zim didn't reply.

Swearing under her breath about stupid homicidal aliens, (or something to that effect), Gaz cautiously poked her head around the table to locate him. 

Zim hadn't followed her all the way across the room. Instead he had slumped to the floor near the center of the lab, sweat or at least the Irken equivalent beading his brow. Even so, red eyes cracked open and he glared at her as their eyes met. "Nothing is wrong, stupid filthy human!" He spat at her in a low grating voice. 

"Bullshit Zim." She snapped back at him, matching him glare for lethal glare. Ever so slowly she stood again. Sharp squinted eyes inspected the downed alien. "You're sick." Gaz said again. "You're probably dying." She held up the syringe, her brow beading with sudden concentration. "This is the only thing that can help you-- isn't it?" She asked curiously.

When Zim didn't answer her, she lowered her hand and started walking decisively towards the alien. 

The alien's eyes narrowed as she approached. "I told you to destroy it!" he yelled at her.

Gaz shook her head. "I don't *think* so Zim." She returned. "I'm not leaving until you take this vaccine." She paused, then abruptly changed her mind on her plan of attack. "Even if I have to *force* you to take it." She added, a slight smirk curling the side of her mouth. With that she strode towards the alien with quick purposeful strides.

Zim's hand reached back and felt for something behind him, then swung forwards again with a sudden click. Gaz stopped dead in her tracks. She stared down at her chest where the red pinpoint of light sat again, then looked back up at Zim, her eyes wide. 

"Don't come any closer," The alien instructed, his voice low and deadly. 

For a moment Gaz just stood there. Then she smiled again, and continued slowly walking towards Zim. This time it was Zim's eyes that widened. His other hand came up, holding the laser gun steady. "I said *not* to come any closer, human!!" He practically squeaked with rage. 

Gaz's eyebrow quirked. She suddenly had had an epiphany. She knew exactly what she had walked into here. She hadn't spent the last three years of her junior high and high skool life inadvertently hanging around the losers, goths and rejects of the skool not to know a suicide attempt when she saw one. Shooting yourself in the head, slitting your wrists or letting yourself die... it was all the same thing. She also knew that if Zim hadn't shot her already, he probably wasn't going to. 

... Okay, so she was taking a bit of a risk. But then, who didn't take a couple of those over the course of their lifetime? 

"Whatever Zim." She returned, the same odd smile pasted on her face. She kept her eyes focused on the aliens', refusing to look away. "You might be ready to die, but you're not going to kill me to get there."

For a fleeting moment she saw doubt in the alien's eyes. And rage. His hands trembled on the weapon. "How do you know human," He shot at her, his voice a low and deadly hiss, so very different than the manic cries and chortling she was used to. "I disassembled GIR..."

Gaz shook her head very slightly and continued walking. "I'm sure GIR can be reassembled." She said calmly. She was nearly there. Only a few more steps... 

Zim was beginning to look desperate. The hands shook harder. "I almost destroyed your entire pathetic filthy *disgusting* planet!" He snarled. 

Gaz's eyebrow quirked a slight bit at the mouthful, but her voice didn't change. "But you didn't," she returned smugly. Reaching out she calmly took the weapon out of the alien's trembling grasp. 'And you'll never been able to, will you?' She added silently in her head. 'If you can't shoot me, there is no way you'd be able to destroy the entire planet... too bad.' 

She blinked, but she said nothing as she crouched down next to the alien. She stared back into his wide red eyes as she grasped the alien's arm and tugged the glove free. Then she looked down. Deliberately ignoring the small groaning sounds Zim suddenly decided to make, she rolled the arm over and pushed a bit of the cloth away from his skin. In one fluid motion she stuck the syringe into the pale flesh. 

Zim jerked away from her quickly. Instead of lashing out, like Gaz half expected him to, he instead curled in on himself, clenching his arm to his chest. Somewhat concerned despite herself, Gaz lay her hand on the alien's pak. For a long moment Zim did nothing, and then she felt the pack under her hand shake. It was only when a strained sound reached her ears that she realized that Zim was... crying?

Something wrenched at a heart she was somewhat unaware she even had. "Zim..." She began, sure to keep her voice soft and unthreatening. She patted the pack, then switched to his actual back near the shoulder and rubbed it very very gently. "Zim..." She coaxed.

Zim didn't turn back to look at her, but when he spoke his voice was low and strained. "Do you realize what you've done?" He growled at her. 

Gaz was silent. She didn't. She kept on rubbing his back though. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do.

Another soft sobbing sound came from Zim. "I wanted to die," he continued, his voice full of loathing. 

That she did know. "I know you did," Gaz returned simply. 

Zim turned over abruptly, and his glaring red eyes squinted at her. "And yet you didn't let me," The alien stated. "Why?" 

Gaz pulled back enough to put her hand in her lap and looked up at him with the same calm look on her face as she had had the entire time. "Because I don't like seeing my friends die." She answered sincerely.

Zim gave her a brief startled look, then looked away quickly. "I'm not your _friend_, human!" He snarled.

Gaz shrugged. "Okay." She replied. She didn't move, only watched as the alien seemed to half curl in on himself, then righted himself slightly. For a very long moment he sat, with his arms folded across his legs. Then, slowly, he began to speak.

"They sent me here to die," He mumbled. He glanced at Gaz sideways, only to discover that the human girl was still looking at him expectantly. After a moment he looked away again and continued. "I didn't believe it. I refused to believe it. Even when people told me the truth, I just pushed it away. Even when they tried several times to have me killed somehow..." He stopped for a moment, before swallowing and continuing. "For years, I pushed it away." He whispered. "Even when I really knew it was true." He paused for a moment, placing his chin on his knee. Gaz when to touch his shoulder, hesitated, then pulled away again. 

She waited. 

She didn't have to wait long. In a low halting tone, Zim told her everything. Everything from his blotched mission on Operation Impending Doom 1, to convincing the leaders to let him be a part of Operation Impending Doom 2. The tiny insignificant planet they sent him too, on a mission that he was supposed to die on. The years upon years he spent trying to take over the planet and nearly always failed for one reason or another, most of the time because of her brother. The day, much more recently, when the tallest finally decided that they had had enough. "Leave us alone Zim." They had said in not quite as nice of words. "We don't want to hear from you or see you ever again. And if we do, we'll kill you, do you understand?"  
He still was in denial, even at that point. It wasn't until he did contact them again, and then it had come. Right from the Armada its self, a mysterious package. Therein contained was a device that blew the lower portions of his base to bits, almost to the point of un-repair. However he had designed his base to take a lot of damage, and it had repaired its self anyway and fairly quickly. Not nearly quickly enough... because by the time it was done he had realized that he was dying. 

"There was something in that bomb," He said, almost wistfully. "I started getting weaker. It only was about a week ago that I realized... what a compete fool I had been." He shook his head. "I realized that I had nothing left but you stupid pathetic _HUMANS_. And then... and then I went to skool and realized that I didn't even have that." He turned to her then, his red eyes blazing with rage. "I was angry. I was so angry. I am ZIM! I was going to kill ALL of you filthy worm monkeys, take out your world with one magnificent blast originating from this location." He pointed to the floor with a grand flourish. "I told the computer to start working on another bomb, a bomb that would blast this pathetic mud-ball to bits. And do you know what I discovered?" He sneered right in Gaz's face, and the girl calmly backed off a bit. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DISCOVERED???" He shouted.

Gaz shook her head soundlessly, one of her eyebrows raised. 

Zim put his head in his hands. "I discovered that GIR... that stupid, meddling, insane THING," he made a violent gesture in the direction of the disembodied head Gaz had brought into the room with her. "Had told the computer to focus all of its energy on finding me a cure. They ganged up against me! Their master!!" Zim held his head in his hands. "And no matter how many times I yelled at them, and screamed at that stupid DISOBEDIENT computer, and *hit* it, it wouldn't relent. That computer refused to let me leave this disgusting mud ball in the blaze of glory that I- ZIM- an elite Irken Invader-- deserved!" 

There was a long silent pause. Then -- "So I think I went insane." Zim said softly. 

Gaz stared at him, refusing REFUSING to let herself smile. It's just that Dib had accused the alien of being insane... how many times? When the alien turned to glare at her she merely looked back at him solemnly. "I tore Gir to bits. I locked down the base. I retreated to this room, assured that if I would be joined by anyone it would be your meddlesome brother. I RELISHED the knowledge that if he came I would at least have the delight of being able to destroy him, DEFEAT him, and rid myself of his filthy human disgusting-ness, once and for all!" He shook his fist in the air again, then lowered it slowly. 

"Instead I got... you." He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. "You Gaz." He stared at her. "What are you doing here? Where *is* your meddlesome brother?" 

Gaz shrugged. "At skool." She replied. 

"And he did not wish to come to witness the final moments of the life of ZIM?" Zim asked. 

Gaz shook her head again. "I'm sure he would have loved to, but he couldn't get in," She pointed out. "I came myself." She added. 

Zim gave her a beseeching look out of the corner of his eye. For a long moment he just studied her, and then his antennae fell back across his head. "I wanted to die." He said, sounding more than a bit put out.

"But you didn't." Gaz replied. 

He looked at her. 

"Do you still?" Gaz asked after a moment.

"I--" Zim faltered. Gaz raised her eyebrow again as she watched Zim. It looked like the alien was visibly struggling with her question. He sighed. 

"I. Don't. Know..." He finally muttered, so softly that she could barely hear him. This time the small alien did curl in on himself, his head lowering to finally thump gently on his knees.

Gaz was silent for several more seconds. Then she lifted an evaluating eye at him. She thought for a moment, then decided on a course of action. "Well," she said abruptly. "Come on." Reaching out she grabbed Zim by his arm and bodily hauled him to his feet. 

"What..?" The alien stumbled slightly, uncertain as what to make of this new change of events. "Where?!" He demanded to know as Gaz began to drag him towards the door. 

Gaz turned and gave him a harsh appraising look. Zim almost seemed to wilt under her scrutiny. Then she did something she rarely ever did on purpose-- she smiled. "We're going to my house." She announced, turning back about and continuing to pull the alien after her. 


	3. Tension

~~~

Part 3 - Tension

It took a little bit of convincing, but Gaz finally managed to get Zim to leave his base. Not to say he didn't try to get her to change her mind. He brought up the fact that he was just sick and the fact that her brother wouldn't like it very much at ALL, as reasons why he couldn't leave and go home with her. The first one was solved when they walked by the computer and it decided to give Zim a very grumpy clean bill of health and a new wig to boot. 

The second was solved in the fact that she was very skeptical that her brother really did hate Zim. After all, as she explained to the arrogant little alien on the way out his door, her brother's favorite movie when they were little was E.T.. When she explained that E.T. was about a little boy who became friends with an extraterrestrial, Zim had gotten a very particular look on his face. It was a look that appeared to be caught halfway between complete fascination and utter disgust. And there was the fact that she had been noticing ever since Zim had first came to earth... that Dib and Zim were more alike than either one would care to admit. 

She ranted at him all the way to her house about it, making it one of the longest conversations she had ever held in her life. Zim looked very shocked once they actually reached her home, and actually cowered a bit when she ended her tirade with a "... and if you and Dib took three seconds to actually stop trying to make each other completely miserable, you'd realize that you could be closer friends than most other people are in this stupid world!!" 

Then she sat the alien down in the living room and made him play video games with her. 

Her brother, as expected, returned from skool at the normal time at about half past three. She listened as he stomped in the door, muttering something inconsequential under his breath, and listened as he made a failed attempt at hanging up his jacket. A glance out of the side of her face showed that Zim had stopped playing the video game and sat listening to her brother's actions as well. She sighed and paused her game. She waited. 

She didn't have to wait long. 

"GAZ?" Dib's incredulous voice floated over to her. She listened as he made his way across the room. "What are you doing here? Why weren't you in skool this afternoon?" She heard him gasp audibly. "What's HE doing here?" 

Zim had gotten to his feet rather abruptly to face her brother. "I'll have you know, human," He said with extreme superiority. "That she invited me here." A clawed finger pointed down at her.

Glowering, Gaz slowly got her feet as well, to find that Zim and her brother were glaring at each other whole-heartedly. She growled softly under her breath. "You're interrupting our game DIB." She pointed out, her hands folded across her chest. 

Dib looked at her and his mouth fell open. Gapping, he glanced from his sister to the alien and back again. 

"You're not serious...!" He asked of the latter. He pointed. "But you know he's a--"

"Yes yes, an alien, who's going to destroy your world, blah, blah, we KNOW." Zim replied, waving his hand in the air dismissively. 

Gaz gave her brother her best glare and cracked her knuckles. "Get lost Dib." She warned. "We're busy."

Dib took a couple more seconds to stare at the both of them, his mouth still opening and closing like a fish out of water, then finally he closed it again permanently and began to back away. He never took his eyes off of Zim once as he back peddled into the kitchen. 

'That was rather... unexpected,' He thought to himself as he made his way across the kitchen. He would never admit it out loud, but he had been rather concerned when Gaz hadn't met him by the doors after skool. It wasn't like her to go home early. He had been worried that she was sick or something. Sick was one thing, but he had hardly expected her to be perfectly fine and sitting in their living room playing video games with ZIM of all people. Shaking his head slightly he crossed the floor of the kitchen. As he reached the fridge and opened it, he kept an ear trained on the living room. 

He was quite surprised at what he heard. 

"You know, perhaps it would be best if I left... human," He heard Zim mutter. The alien said "human" almost as if it were tacked onto the sentence. Also, the invader's voice was soft and cautious and so entirely unlike Zim that Dib nearly dropped the soda he had picked up. 

His sister was much more abrasive when she replied. "My name is Gaz." She snapped. 

Dib didn't hear Zim's answer as he made his way back across the kitchen. He wished he did. He leant up against the wall and continued to listen avidly. 

"Fine." Gaz replied with a sigh to whatever it was that Zim had said. There were the sounds of two people getting to their feet and shuffling about. After several moments Dib heard the door creak open and someone step onto the front steps.

"I'll see you in skool tomorrow Zim." Gaz shouted out of the door after the alien. Her voice left no room for argument. That was an order, not a request. 

"Yes, Yesssss. I will be there." Was the faint dismissive reply. 

The door closed again with a slam and Dib jerked away from the wall, startled. 

His sister came stomping into the kitchen. She glared at her brother, noting the flushed and slightly flustered look on his face. 

"What?" She grumped at him. 

Dib couldn't think of any immediate response for once in his life. "That was... dangerous." He finally muttered as he made to leave the room. 

"Actually DIB," His sister's voice followed him out of the room. "I think if you yanked your head out of your ass for once you'd realize that Zim isn't nearly as dangerous as you think he is." 

Dib raised an eyebrow. How on earth did she come up with that one? He didn't say anything though, just shrugged and shot his sister a glare. "Whatever," he muttered. He didn't feel like fighting with Gaz right then. Heck he was still recovering from the shock of finding Zim in his house...

Gaz wasn't done though. The girl suddenly turned around and stalked towards him. "I however," She began. "Am dangerous." She scowled and backed her brother right into the couch. She raised her fist threateningly, relishing the startled, slightly scared look on Dib's face. She hadn't really outright threatened him and meant it in QUITE a while. "If I have a guest over Dib, I expect you to treat them with a little bit of respect. All right?" She held up her other hand as Dib's mouth went to form a 'but...' "Do you understand??" She repeated deliberately. 

Dib nodded silently. 

"Good," Shrugging, Gaz lost her threatening posture and shuffled off towards her room. 

~~~

The next few days were hell on earth for Dib. He wasn't used to his younger 15-year-old sister showing interest in anything, let alone a little alien he liked to pick on called Zim. And interested she was indeed... at least in the ways that Gaz showed interest in things. Which meant that she did enough to attract Zim's attention over to where ever the brother sister pair was at any given moment, then proceeded to ignore him. Except when she stopped reading her book long enough to glare at her brother if he dared try to torment the alien. 

It made for a rather awkward time of things. 

Dib almost had a fit when she deliberately picked up her tray and walked over to sit beside Zim the next day at lunch. She watched out of the corner of her eye as fierce determination to stay in the same place as usual melted into uncertainty when he realized that he was alone. After a moment, the boy sighed and reluctantly picked up his tray and followed his sister.

Zim looked about as uncertain as Dib did at that moment, Dib noticed as he approached. The alien looked from Gaz, who had decided to sit beside him-- silently-- and without even looking up from her book, to her brother across the table and then back again. Dib didn't say anything either, just glared. After a moment or so, Zim decided that it would be safe to go back to warily picking at his food. Silence descended over the occupants of the table. 

This silence lasted a whole three minutes. 

Dib couldn't take it any more. He flung his fork back down into his tray and glared. "Why do you do that?!" He demanded to know.

Zim blinked when he realized that Dib was talking to him. Then -- "I have no idea what you are talking about," the alien said haughtily. 

"BULL Zim," Dib snapped, making a wild gesture at the alien's food tray. "You're not actually EATING anything." He took a deep breath and launched right into rant mode. "Every day for the last five years you've sat here and picked at your food without actually eating anything. Five YEARS Zim!" He threw his hands in the air. "You haven't eaten anything in five years! Why doesn't anyone ever no-- OW!" He stopped short when Gaz kicked him rather hard under the table. He looked at his sister. "That hurt!" He protested, reaching down to rub at his bruised shin. 

"You're interrupting my reading," his sister replied calmly, giving him an evil eye and turning her attention back to her book. 

Dib grumbled something under his breath and continued rubbing his shin.

Gaz turned a page and continued reading. "So Zim," She asked pleasantly, without even looking up. "Have you gotten GIR back together yet?" 

Zim looked at her. "I-- eh," He put down his fork and nodded. "Yes, GIR is functioning within normal parameters again... at least for him." He gave Dib a suspicious look out of the corner of his eye, wondering if this information would end up being used against him. 

Dib did look interested, but after a moment he only snorted and returned his attention to his vegetables. "If he was broken I don't know why you'd want to put that freakish robot dog thing back together again." He muttered. 

Zim put both sets of claws down on the table. "I'll have you know that I'm rather fond of that 'freakish dog thing', as you so graciously put it," he snapped. 

Dib glared and readied a reply... but a warning glance from Gaz made him think better of it. Instead he just shrugged and returned to his lunch.

The rest of the lunch passed in very strained silence. At least in between Dib and Zim. Gaz wasn't affected much at all... she continued to eat and read at the same time, and ignore everyone around her, which was an art she had perfected way back in elementary skool.

The next few days passed much the same as that first lunch did. Dib put up with sitting with Zim and his sister at lunch... only because he had no other place to sit. 

When he had asked Gaz why they HAD to sit with Zim at lunch, the only response he got was a shrug and a "Why not?" When he asked why they were even hanging around Zim at all, he got the same shrug and a "Why not?" When he expressed his willingness to NOT sit with Zim, Gaz told him that he could do whatever the hell he wanted, she didn't care. It was only when he asked suspiciously if something was going on between the two of them did he get a different response. This time Gaz gave him a very decisive "NO." And threatened to kill him if he asked again. Gaz's death threats were to be obeyed-- especially recently... 

He thought he was going to go insane. However he still seemed to need to sit with someone at lunch hour (old habits die hard) and so put up with sitting with Zim and well as his sister.

Gaz for her part was very good at ignoring both of them or randomly kicking either one of them if they decided to be anything but civil to one another. Dib quickly learnt that speaking and being civil at the same time was beyond his abilities most of the time, and were especially so when he was suspicious of his sister and the alien. Which was only adding to the collection of bruises on his legs. 

"At least he's not trying to take over the world right now," Dib muttered under his breath after another hellish lunch hour. Instead, he guessed from the uncertain looks Zim was starting to regularly give his sister that the alien was too busy trying to figure her out instead. 

He wished him luck in that. He had lived with his sister for 15 years and he still didn't get her. He had no idea where she came from half the time, but his only guess was that she was either really really smart or had something seriously wrong with her upstairs. He was willing to opt for the first one... most of the time. 

That week though, he was beginning to wonder if it were the later. Especially when, near the end of the week at lunch she had looked up from her game suddenly, and turned her attention to Zim. "Zim," She asked abruptly. "What are you doing after skool?"

Zim actually visibly started. "I, eh..." The confused look grew and Dib could practically see the gears working in the alien's head as he searched for the appropriate response. "I will probably go back to the ba-- er, home and... do stuff..." He cleared his throat nervously, his eyes darting at Dib. Dib looked as clueless as he did, which told him that there was no danger there. 

Gaz paused her game. "Important stuff?" she asked looking at Zim directly. 

Zim shook his head slowly. "Er, no..."

Gaz nodded, a pleased look on her face. "Do you want to come over and play video games again?" She asked. 

"Uh..." Zim actually looked at a loss for words. "I-- yes. Sure." The alien nodded, even though he looked like he wanted to do anything but. 

Dib threw his hands in the air. "Oh great..." He muttered. He caught the warning look Gaz sent him and instantly moved his leg out of the way. 

Dib stomped half of the way home. After the first half of walking home in silence, (except for his stomping) he gave up and resigned himself to his fate. His sister was walking a little bit a head of them both and he gave Zim a suspicious glance out of the side of his face. Zim didn't look any different from normal... besides the fact that it appeared that he had lost most of his lock kneed walk and instead walked along quite normally, with his gloved hands half stuffed into the side pockets of his shirt. 

"Why do you go to skool anyway?" Dib suddenly asked the green skinned alien. 

Zim looked up at him, surprised. There wasn't much if any animosity in Dib's voice, it only sounded like he was curious. 

Dib shrugged, inspecting Zim. "I mean don't you already know everything anyway?" He asked. 

Zim drew himself up and gave Dib a rather haughty look. After a moment, however, he lost his posturing. His shoulders slumped and he sighed. "No Dib," He said in a slightly snide voice. "I DON'T know everything. Why ELSE would I be in skool?" 

Gaz found that rather funny for some reason. A small smile twitched at the corner of her mouth. She was walking ahead though, so nobody saw it.

"Oh." Dib said. Two weeks ago he would have teased Zim about not knowing everything, but now he didn't feel like it. And he feared his sister, so he didn't say anything.

The rest of the walk home was strained. Dib got decidedly moodier the closer to Gaz and his house they got. When they finally walked inside Gaz watched as her brother muttered something about studying and went to make his way upstairs. He paused on the landing and turned. "Oh yeah, Gaz, I get the TV at eight." He warned. "My show is on." 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Gaz returned. She was already in front of the holovid, hooking up her gaming system. 

"Show?" Zim questioned once Dib had retreated from the room. 

Gaz snorted. "He watches a stupid paranormal show every night." It irritated her slightly that Dib still managed to commandeer the TV every night to watch his paranormal stuff. Mysterious Mysteries had been canceled years ago, but Dib still found something low budget and weird to watch. This one was called " Lifestyles of the Strange and Unusual" or something to that effect. She didn't care. 

~~~

Their gameplay went well into the night, save for an hour when a VERY grumpy Dib kicked them off of the TV to watch his show. That was fine with Gaz who took the opportunity to retreat into the kitchen with Zim and discuss... things. Relatively normal things, at least for Zim. It surprised Gaz how easy it was to get him to talk to her now, and she had only been hanging around the alien for a week. He told her everything from what human foods he COULD eat (burnt toast and beets apparently) to all of the wonderfully insane ways he wanted to take over the world (but of course wouldn't use, partly because they just wouldn't work.) The conversation led them both to be sitting at the kitchen table opposite one another, laughing and cheerfully plotting the end of the world. 

In the living room Dib's eyes narrowed and he turned up the volume on the TV. He wasn't really watching it, but he didn't want to listen to his sister play nice with his enemy any longer. For some reason the whole entire thought of the two of them together upset him incredibly, and it had been growing constantly all week. He had no idea what Zim or his sister had done to cause any sort of friendship to develop between them, but he decided that he *didn't* like it. It was one thing to see the alien at skool everyday and to observe him in and about his freaky little house, and he put up with sitting with the alien at lunch hour, but it was an entirely different thing all together when the enemy was in his HOUSE. And not only in his house, but talking to Gaz. Gaz, who was talking, laughing and joking in a very unlike Gaz fashion. Gaz who INVITED him over to play games with her all night. People like his sister didn't all of a sudden become social over night! 

Something had happened, he decided. Something happened a week ago... when his sister had disappeared from class. She must have gone over to investigate Zim or something... or perhaps Zim came to skool. And kidnapped her. Yes... that was probably it. That night when he found Zim in his living room playing with his sister, he could tell that Gaz had changed. He didn't doubt that the alien put her under some sort of hypnosis or something. 

Dib placed his fist in his palm and sent a glance towards the kitchen. That was it then. Zim had done something to his sister to make her suddenly decide to befriend him. He wanted something from her. But what?

Dib ignored the tiny voice in the back of his head that told him that he was being irrational. He ignored the whispering doubts that reminded him of Zim's behavior the week before... the odd week long disappearance of the alien. He ignored the fact that the alien had looked confused and bewildered by his sister's overtures of friendship as he did, just as recently as at lunch hour that day. All he knew was that he wanted everything back the way it had been before, and that meant getting that alien OUT of his house.

Somehow. 

By the time his show had ended, Dib still hadn't gotten any closer to any idea on how to get rid of Zim without suffering the wrath of his sister. Finally he decided that he'd go onto plan B... if his sister insisted on playing more video games with Zim, he'd spy on them. It was a perfect plan. His room was right above the living room. There was nothing that he couldn't see or hear from his bedroom. And then maybe he could figure out what Zim was up to. 

He got up and turned off the TV. He then made a point of yawning and stretching as he walked by the kitchen. "I'm going to be-- AHHH!!" He screamed. 

Zim stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, in his alien form. He even had his contacts out. His sister stood a couple of feet away, Zim's wig in hand. She blinked. 

Gaz spoke first. "What?" She scowled at her dumbfounded brother. "I wanted to see him without the costume on again, is there a PROBLEM?" She asked, handing Zim his wig back. Zim accepted them soundlessly and turned his back to Dib.

"Stupid human," He muttered at Dib once he had re-applied his human costuming. 

Dib shook his head slightly and turned away. "No," He snapped in response to his sister's question, his voice cold and hard. His eyes narrowed at the alien. Zim caught his look and his eyes widened ever so slightly. He saw the threat there. "No problem." Dib continued after a pause. "I'm going to bed." With that he broke eye contact with the alien and turned away to stomp upstairs. 

"Sweet dreams DIB," Zim called after him pleasantly. 

Dib flushed to the sound of Zim and Gaz's laughter and kept right on walking. 

~~~

Raina was the first person (as far as I've read) to mention E.T. in relation to Dib in an Invader Zim fic. No offense or copying is intended.   
... Oh, and while we're on the subject of Raina, she's one of my favorite fanfic writers EVER... her "Walking in the Light" is one of the most brilliant pieces I've ever read, fan fiction or not. (I'm a huge fan can't you tell? ^_~) Anyhow, if you haven't already, I highly recommend that you read her Invader Zim fan fiction. You can find her on my "favorites" list. Yup. *nods happily, hopes she hasn't offended/embarrassed Raina by shamelessly promoting her* :D


	4. Fear

**Warnings**: Flirting (and social) Gaz. Clueless Zim. Characters talking about things of a mature nature. Some very mild things of a mature nature. Generally a plotless relationship developing part. (Plot starts again in the next part, yay! ^_^)

**Random History about the Author**: I spent 5 years (5 years!!) of my life writing yaoi/slash fanfiction 90% of the time. Why did I switch to straight fiction? *shrugs* I just grew out of yaoi I guess... at least most of it. O_o Anyway, I've never written mature straight anything and posted it, let alone mature straight something with an alien. For the record: I tried, and it was _very_ fun! :)

~~~

Part 4 - Fear 

*GAME OVER*

The red letters flashed over the length of the living room, bathing the two occupants in an unearthly glow. For a moment neither one of them said anything. Gaz didn't speak because she was spending a moment being dumbfounded... Zim had finally managed to beat her after what? Eight straight hours of game play? That deserved a begrudging congratulations... most people would never beat her... ever. 

With a faint wry smile on her face, she turned her head, opened her mouth... 

... And Zim beat her to it.

"A ha! Victory for ZIM!" the alien proclaimed, leaping to his feet. He let out a laugh as he raised his fists high in the air. "I have defeated you!!" He chortled. "Meet the wrath of ZIM, pit-i-ful--"

Gaz closed her jaw and frowned slightly. 

"HU-man!" Zim completed, following up his statement with ego-maniatic laughter.

_'Okay that's enough of that'_, Gaz thought to herself. Her eyes narrowed. "Zim." She said. When he continued to laugh she gritted her teeth, reached out, and yanked on his pant leg.

Zim stopped laughing and looked down. "Eh?" He asked the girl, his fists still triumphantly raised in the air.

"That's annoying." Gaz pulled away and folded her arms across her chest. "And you'll wake up Dib and Dad," she added pointedly. 

"Oh. Huhm." Zim cleared his throat and re-took his place next to Gaz. 

There was silence for a couple of moments. Then: "You humans and your sleep," The alien scoffed, but there wasn't any malice in his voice. 

Gaz said nothing, only peered at the blank TV screen, a thinking frown still pasted on her face. 

"Again?" Zim asked hopefully after another a moment or so of silence wandered by. 

"Mmm..." Gaz stretched and sighed, glancing at her watch was she did so. "'fraid not," She said finally. "It's two in the morning. And just because SOMEone doesn't need sleep, I do, and I've got to go to skool tomorrow." She glowered slightly at the thought of skool.

"Ah." 

Gaz shut her eyes briefly, then opened them again. "Zim?" she asked. 

"Yes?" 

"Thank you." Gaz said, turning to look at the somewhat tiny alien. 

The alien blinked. "For what?" 

Gaz resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "For coming over tonight. I appreciated it."

After a pause, Zim thrust a fist into the air again. "It was nothing for ZIM..." he began.

Gaz glared. "Yes, yes, we *know* already." She snapped, cutting Zim's rant short. She didn't feel badly about yelling at Zim. After all she had been playing with him for eight hours straight, and after a while his ego got just a little annoying. But Gaz had to admit that she did enjoy the opportunity to just talk to him, and she had been able to get a good deal of that in as well. She had also found that she didn't offend Zim when she snapped at him for anything. He just took it as a gauge of when he needed to be quiet. 

"Okay." Zim shut up. 

See? She smiled slightly as she peered at the TV. 

Silence fell between them, then lengthened uncomfortably. The alien began to fiddle with his gloves. 

Gaz glanced at the alien out of the corner of her eye_. 'He's so cute when he's uncertain of himself,'_ she thought to herself. _'Look at him. This is all so new to him... the whole communicating bit. ... Of course this is fairly new to you as well,'_ she reflected. '_... but you definitely have the advantage.'_

Her smile grew a slight bit. '_I wonder...?' _

For a moment or so she considered. Finally she decided to hell with it. Reaching out she grasped the alien's gloved hand, pulling it away from the other glove it was picking at. "Zim..." There was a different tone to Gaz's voice this time when she spoke.

"Yes?" Zim looked up and was met with a pair of deep brown eyes. Gaz was smiling at him, which was surprising... he rarely ever saw the human girl smile at anything, let alone him. Though, to be perfectly honest, she had seemed to be doing that a lot to him recently. 

She continued to smile and he blinked guilelessly back at her, suddenly very unsure and hesitant. His world seemed to freeze for a moment as she lifted a hand to his green colored cheek, stroking it gently once before leaning forwards and capturing his lips with her own. 

His alien equivalent of a heart stopped, and then started up again, going about a hundred times faster than it had ever gone before. Startled, he jerked away with a little squeak. "W-what was that for?" He sputtered, running his gloved hand across his month.

Gaz pulled away. The happy expression on her face faded to turn to one of confusion and maybe just a little bit of hurt. _'Note to self'_, she thought. _'Kissing alien = Bad idea.'_ "I don't know." She muttered. Suddenly she turned away, looking down at her hands with a huge frown on her face. "I just had the urge to-- I... nevermind." She shook her head, then looked back up at him. Zim was pulled away from her, clutching the couch cushion behind him and looking rather alarmed as he stared at her through wide eyes. 

_'Oh man, look at him. You idiot Gaz!'_ The inner dialogue continued, sounding nearly relieved as she took in the alien's posture. It didn't take longer than a second for Gaz to realize that the look that Zim was giving her was not one of disgust, but rather one of fear. She nearly smiled upon realizing, very relieved. 

"I'm sorry Zim," She apologized contritely, leaning up and patting his arm. He went to jerk it away then stopped, deliberately forcing his arm still. Gaz wasn't going to hurt him. Despite her past scariness, she hadn't done anything in the last few hours or really the last week or so to indicate that that was her intention at all. He even trusted her enough to let her take off his disguise earlier. She wasn't going to...

"I didn't mean you any harm." Gaz continued, confirming his thoughts. She gave him a long searching look, then sighed and pulled away. Her arms went back to being folded across her chest and her voice was somewhere between exasperated and sulky when she spoke. "Zim do you even know what I just did?" She asked. 

Zim hesitated, then cleared his throat again. "Eh... er, yes, somewhat..." He replied, trying and not quite succeeding at forcing the nervousness from his voice. 

Gaz looked up at him through her bangs, obviously awaiting an answer of some sort. Zim began to glance around apprehensively. When he thought about it, he had no idea *why* he was nervous... but for some reason his heart was still pounding and he *felt* fearful. _'I am ZIM!!' _He thought to himself. _'This is ridiculous!'_ He added.

"Somewhat?" Gaz gave him a critical look. "Zim exactly what DO you know about kissing?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Screw that. Zim was beginning to wish he had decided to go home to his base instead of coming here. He was beginning to sweat. The mating habits of an alien species was NOT something he felt comfortable talking about, even if he had just spent the last 5 years living among them. 

This is Gaz, he reminded himself yet again. He knew he had said a lot of things he shouldn't have ever said to the human girl back at his base a week ago. When it had been evident that he was no longer going to die, he had even, briefly, considered doing away with her. 

But Gaz hadn't done anything to indicate that she was untrustworthy during this week. He had been listening to her, more than she probably knew... listening for her to slip and tell her brother everything she had learnt. Instead she had kept everything he had told her in the strictest of confidences, to his immense relief. It was that that helped him want to open up to the human girl, tell her of glorious things and plans he had and all that mattered to him. And, above all it was sort of... NICE to have someone to talk to. After years of only GIR, Gaz was a refreshing change. For one, her responses always made sense. No matter how incredibly good he had gotten at deciphering GIR, there were still times when the robot confused him, or worse, scared him right out of his wits. 

So what if she wants to talk about human affection? He thought. 'There are far worse things for her to want to talk about. You know... like... well.' He cut off his train of thought right then and there. 

Swallowing his apprehension, he cleared his throat, yet again, and took a stab at what he knew. What he had learnt was either from the computer and skool or, more frequently, the TV. "I know it is part of the human mating process." He said finally, well aware that he was flushing a lovely shade of deep green and finding himself quite unable to do anything about it. "Kissing initiates it, and then there are several rather painful looking things that follow, including loss of clothing, dancing in awkward positions and finally some violent rubbing together and screaming." He blinked. "Or something to that effect." He bit his tongue on the comment of 'GIR would probably know better than I', as the little robot had spent much of the last five years, save the last month, watching earth TV. He looked at Gaz, knowing that he appeared more than a little confused and lost and hated himself for it. 

Gaz's shoulders had begun to shake and one of her hands came up to cover her mouth. For a moment Zim was sure that she was hurt, and placed his hand on her shoulder, alarmed. "What is it?" He asked, uncharacteristically concerned. "Are you okay?" 

Gaz shook her head wildly, and finally removed her hand from her mouth. She was laughing, very hard. "Oh, that was great!" She howled, wiping tears from her eyes. "'And then several rather painful things follow...'" She repeated in a high pitched approximation of Zim's voice, before throwing her head back and laughing some more. "Where did you learn about sex-- on a fetish show?" She gasped between chuckles.

Zim had retracted his hand and glared down at her with mild contempt. She was mocking him. He gritted his teeth. Well then, he didn't need to stay here any longer... 

He was just about to climb to his feet and make to leave when Gaz recovered quite suddenly. A smile still quirked at the corner of her lips, but she turned solemn eyes up at him. "I'm sorry Zim," she apologized. "Your species probably reproduces much differently than ours." She really did smile, but this time it was genuine and not a smirk, her eyes twinkling as she peered up at him. "I should probably keep that in mind next time I decide to kiss an alien." She said ruefully. 

Zim shrugged. At least she wasn't laughing at him any longer, which was good. And the kiss hadn't hurt. She wasn't Dib, she was Dib's sister. She didn't CARE enough to hurt him. He relaxed. 

Gaz looked at him for a long moment. And then she backed off a slight bit. She cocked her head to the side, studying Zim. 

"What about you?" She asked finally. It was a subject that sparked curiosity in her. She would have asked her brother, who more than likely knew all about the sexual habits of Irkens after so many years of faithful study; but it wasn't like her to show interest in any such things and a question like that would more than likely upset him somehow. 

"Me?" Zim practically squeaked. He cleared his throat quickly. 

"Yes. You know..." Gaz circled her hands in the air, then let out an exasperated sigh. It looked like she was going to have to elaborate. "Okay." She explained. "Tak. She was girl alien right?" 

Zim nodded silently. 

"And you..." Gaz pointed at him. "You're a boy alien..."

"Yes, yes," Zim replied, cycling his own hands through the air with his own mild amount of exasperation. "You-- oh." He got it. "Eh..."

The look on Gaz's face told him that now that he got it, she wanted to know. 

Sighing, Zim leaned his head back and peered at the ceiling. He considered for a short bit, then decided that there wasn't any harm in telling the human about his kind. After all, unless Tak decided to show up here again, which seemed increasingly unlikely as the years rolled by, he wasn't ever going to see another member of his race again. 

"I know nothing of sex among my kind," He said finally and honestly. "As far as I can tell, we don't have that."

Gaz's looked curious despite herself. "But how do you...?"

"I was born in an incubator," Zim began. "In a little pod next another little pod in a room full of little pods." He explained quickly. "As each little pod comes due we are cracked out of our chamber and given our PAKs" he indicated to the pack on his back "and sent off to work. Nothing more, nothing less." He used to hate thinking about this. It just reminded him of his complete and utter insignificance... of which he had been in denial about for over a century... since the day he was born in fact.

Gaz studied him. "So you were a test tube baby." She stated. 

Zim nodded. "On a world full of test tube babies yes." He glanced up at the girl to discover that she was giving him a pitying look. "What?" He asked, a mite bit defensively. 

Gaz shook her head slightly. "I..." She hesitated and frowned, then tried again. "But what about family? Parents? Even if you were a test tube baby you must have had some of those..." 

Zim shook his head. "Not as far as I'm aware. I don't know where they get the DNA to make babies... I never asked or cared." He added, somewhat sheepishly. "But I imagine they just grow them like you humans grow your clones... through your blood and DNA." He smiled slightly. "Which, if you ask me, from what I've seen seems like a lot less of a painful of a procedure than human... sex." His lip curled.

He turned his head back to Gaz to discover that the girl was smiling at him again. Her eyes really were quite pretty when she wasn't squinting them and smiling as well, he decided. He hesitantly smiled back. 

Continuing to smile, Gaz leaned up. "Well I have to say that was interesting, thank you." She said, and kissed him on the lips again, this time quickly and closed mouthed as not to frighten him. She chuckled once she had pulled away, noting once again, Zim's wide eyes and defensive posture. "That didn't hurt did it?" She asked innocently. 

Zim shook his head soundlessly. 

"Good," Gaz replied. And she then leaned over and did it again. 

Upstairs, oblivious to the romance happening in his own living room, Dib slept. He had fallen asleep nearly an hour previous when Zim and Gaz had been still playing video games.... and that was more than likely a good thing. 

Gaz didn't even want to think of the way her brother would react if he knew what she was during presently. Though, she thought, it really shouldn't matter to HIM what I do with myself, now should it? 

_'No,'_ she thought, _'It shouldn't. And it won't.' _

Her mind wandered. _'You know, I would love to do this in front of him, just to see how he'd react... heh. That WOULD be funny.'_ She would have smirked a rather evil smirk, but her lips were occupied presently.

Gaz pulled away from Zim a final time. At least she pulled away enough that their faces where not touching in any way, shape, or form. She was still rather close. "Zim?" She asked.

"Yes?" Fake lavender eyes searched hers.

"Do you still?" Gaz asked seriously.

Zim was taken quite aback. "I..." He paused, trying to figure out what Gaz was referring to. Then he realized. She wanted to know if he still wanted to die. "No. I don't want to die anymore." He replied firmly, shaking his head. "I am ZIM!" He proclaimed in a soft voice, but the vibrant will was still there. "I will not be defeated so easily." He shook his fist melodramatically. 

Gaz nodded decisively. "That's good." She replied. After a moment the smile returned.

Zim smiled back at her. 

"Are you uncomfortable?" Gaz asked suddenly, indicating the fact that she was sitting extremely close to him. 

Zim nodded 'yes'. Then shook his head 'no'.

Gaz arched an eyebrow at him.

"I like this much better than the meats." Zim said kindly after a moment. "This doesn't hurt at all." He paused, and considered for a moment. "It's all actually kind of pleasant, come to think of it...."

Gaz smiled and laughed and did something Zim wasn't expecting at all... she hugged him. 

~~~

They talked for a while after that... about nothing else to do with mating habits or offspring of their respectively different species, but rather of all sorts of things; which ranged from the fauna on planet Irk to the diversity of human cultures. At three Gaz dozed off in the middle of one of Zim's sentences, sitting on the floor with her head in her arms on the couch cushion beside him. 

For about an hour Zim sat beside her, soundlessly, and wondering exactly what he should do. Just like how Gaz had to spend a good couple of minutes teaching him about human affection by touch, (which overall had made him feel somewhat uncomfortable), he now needed her to tell him about the human protocols of what-to-do-when-your-friend-falls-asleep-next-to-you-on-the-couch-when-you-know-she-should-be-sleeping-in-a-human-bed-of-cloth. For the longest time he wondered if perhaps he should carry her up to her bed of cloths, or if he should let her continue to sleep beside him. He also wondered if he should just leave. He didn't know, so he just sat.

Gaz decided to solve his dilemma for him by waking up again sometime later. "Mmm... sorryI guess Ifeelasleep." She half slurred, half yawned. Blurry eyes blinked up at Zim. "Whattimeisit?" She mumbled. 

A glance at the Professor Membrane clock on the wall told him it was quarter after four. He told the girl this. 

Gaz didn't seem too incredibly concerned. 

"Oh well." Shrugging, she got to her feet and stretched again. Zim winced as he heard several human bones snap and pop, but Gaz seemed unconcerned about this as well. 

"You may as well stay here," She said after a moment. "We need to be up for skool in three hours." Wandering over to the holovid she indicated to a box that lay beneath it. "Here," She said. "There's plenty of games for you to play if you want." She paused. "Just don't break them... or I'll break you." With that she yawned again and shuffled away, leaving Zim alone with her gaming system, and made her way upstairs. 

Zim waited until he heard the sound of her door close before he smiled deviously and darted over to the box beneath the holovid. Inspecting its contents, he rubbed his hands together, chuckling with evil glee. "Ex-cellent..." He pronounced. "Victory for ZIM!" With that he reached inside and proudly extracted one. 

Yes... he was going to get in a LOT of practice... and then victory would finally _and_ permanently be HIS...

At least when it came to Gaz's video games.


	5. Animosity

~~~

Part 5 - Animosity

Dib had remained blissfully unaware of the romantics of the couple in his living room the night before. He had fallen asleep at about one in the morning while listening to his sister and Zim as they continued to play video games in the room below, completely bored at the lack of any really interesting interaction between them. He had woken up again, briefly, at four, to the sound of his sister's door closing across the hall. 

He had stared at the ceiling for a bit, wondering why, exactly, he was on the floor instead of in his bed. Then he realized. After a mild stint of swearing under his breath about how completely un-investigator like it was of him to fall asleep in the middle of his observations of his sister and Zim, he moved away from his spying-vent and crawled into bed. He fell back asleep assuming that sister was fine, as he had just heard her go into her room, and assuming that Zim had done something reasonably human and had gone home for the night. 

He assumed wrong. Dib was met with a surprise when he walked into the kitchen that morning. Zim sat at his kitchen table, blithely nibbling on a piece of toast and reading the newspaper. Across from him sat his father, reading a different section of the newspaper. 

His father looked up at him as he entered the room. "Hello son!" His father greeted him cheerily. "Did you know that your foreign friend spent the night over?"

Dib's eyes narrowed at Zim. "No." He replied, his voice cold and sharp. Once again he thought to himself about how foolish it had been of him to fall asleep the night before. 'If Zim spent the night HERE, then did anything *happen* between him and my sister?' He thought, suddenly paranoid.

Zim answered his question for him. "I stayed on your couch Dib, no need to get all worked up," the alien said, without even looking up from his paper. 

Dib grunted and padded on bare feet across the room to the counter. He watched the alien out of the corner of his eye as he placed two pieces of bread in the toaster. He couldn't help but to notice that Zim looked really comfortable, sitting there at HIS table. 

"I'm off to work then!" His father said suddenly. "Have a good day at skool son. Zim." 

"Yup. Thanks Dad. You too." Dib nodded absently as his father left the room, his gaze completely focused on Zim. He was about to open his mouth to interrogate the alien when his father's voice drifted from the hall. "Good morning Gaz," His father's voice said. Dib shut his mouth, cursing very softly under his breath. 

A grunt was the only response Dib's father received. A second or so later a rather bed-headed and tired looking Gaz in a housecoat appeared at the entrance of the kitchen. She took one look at the occupants of the room... her brother with his back stiff against the counter and a look that could kill on his face, and Zim at the table casually pretending to read the paper and pretending to sip liquid out of a mug of coffee... and smirked. Her day just got a heck of a lot better. 

"Good morning," She chirped... her smirk growing decidedly evil. She flounced across the kitchen floor, stopped at Zim, leaned down and gave the alien a quick kiss on the cheek.

Both her brother and the alien reeled. Dib made an odd strangled sound and turned back towards the toaster.

"Whatwasthatfor??" Zim gasped, startled and caught completely unaware. He fell backwards and attempted to bat her away with both of his clawed hands. As he did so the coffee he wasn't drinking but holding anyway sloshed out of his cup and fell on his shirt. The alien screamed as the scalding liquid began to eat through his cloths and smoke as it began to burn into his skin. He leapt to his feet. He continued to scream as he dashed over to the front door and ran from the house. 

He was gone in a matter of seconds. Gaz and her brother both watched him go. 

"Opps." Gaz muttered. "I didn't mean to do that." Then she shrugged and went to get her breakfast. 

"Why DID you do that?!" Dib shot at her as his toast popped up. He violently wrenched it out of the toaster. 

Gaz stared at her brother for a moment. "Because I felt like it?" She replied as she brushed by him. She placed her own bread in the toaster and clicked it down. 

Dib glared at her as she went. "What did you two do last night?" He asked quickly. 

Gaz shrugged. "Nothing much," She replied casually. 

"Then why did you kiss him just now?" Dib asked again. 

Gaz' eyes narrowed. This was starting to become annoying. "I told you DIB," She said. "Because I FELT like it." She shrugged again. "It's not like I haven't done it before." She added, insinuatingly.

Dib's mouth fell open. "You're... kidding." He returned in that dry voice of his. 

Gaz shrugged again and studied the toaster. "Am I?" She returned. There was just the barest hint of challenge in her voice. 

For the longest time Dib just stared at her, then she watched out of the corner of her eye as the most interesting change came over his face. It went from shock, to anger, to absolute rage. She could see that he was practically seething as he buttered his toast with quick rasping strokes. 

"He's. An. Alien. Gaz." He finally grated out. He made a wide flailing gesture with his butter knife. "For all you know he could... you know, reproduce by laying EGGS in your stomach. Or something." He looked disgusted as he said this. 

Gaz looked down and patted her stomach. "That would be... interesting." She said as seriously as she could, completely enjoying her brother's discomfort. 

"What?" Dib's jaw dropped again. He glowered. "Don't you CARE?!" He finally exploded. Putting down his knife, he stepped forwards and grasped his little sister by her shoulder, shaking her. "What is WRONG with you?" He shouted at her. 

For a moment Gaz looked shocked that her brother had dared to touch her AND yell in her face, then she glowered and violently wrenched her shoulder out of his grasp. 

Dib let his hand fall to his side. "I don't want to you to spend any more time with him." He said in a much more calm voice. His eyes pleaded with Gaz to understand why he was asking this of her.

She didn't understand. Eyes narrowing, Gaz reached out and grasped Dib's butter knife, thrusting it in his face. Dib stepped away, startled. "Fuck OFF Dib, you have no right telling me what to do with my life." She snapped. She slammed the knife back down on the counter and turned away, visibly upset. "Touch me again and die." She added, forcing her voice steady. Even so her voice cracked a bit on the last word, and she winced. _'Exactly when did I loose control of this situation?'_ she thought to herself wildly. _'Damn, I can't believe he...'_

Dib was silent for a long time. Gaz listened as he finally moved to gather up his toast and quietly walked upstairs. 

A couple of seconds later she heard his door slam. 

Gaz ate her breakfast alone. When it came time to go to skool Dib still hadn't come out of his room. Not that Gaz particularly cared. She called up a grumpy "I'm going now!" and left without him, being sure to slam the front door behind her as she went. 

Dib still hadn't appeared at lunch hour. Though she didn't show it, Gaz was just a touch worried as she sat down next to Zim. And pissed off, there was no doubt about that. But no matter how badly her and her brother had ever fought before Dib had never missed skool over it.

Zim, who was usually nervous at lunch hour, usually because horrible things happened to him then more than anywhere else; (something to do with the readily availableness of foods that could seriously hurt him,) looked relieved as Gaz came and sat down next to him. His look of relief slowly turned to one of concern as he inspected the girl. Gaz didn't instantly haul out a gaming system or a book like she usually did, but instead sat and moodily picked at her food. 

Zim desperately went through his rather pitiful knowledge of human emotions and feelings. He wondered what was upsetting her. Was it because he left abruptly at breakfast that morning, and did not acknowledge her affection appropriately? Was it because Dib had been upset this morning when he found Zim at his house still? Was it something he did last night? Did it have something to do with her brother not being here right now, which he had just noticed? 

He thought for a long moment as Gaz continued to pick at her food grumpily. After a moment he decided to opt for the easiest, most obvious approach. 

Zim cautiously poked Gaz in the shoulder with a gloved finger. "Where is your brother?" He asked when the girl looked up at him. 

Gaz shook her head slightly and looked down again. "At home," she muttered. She poked at her peas violently for a moment, then looked up again. "We had a fight." She said finally. 

Zim looked at her. 

"It was about you." Gaz continued, returning her attention to her food. 

Zim searched his brain for an appropriate response. _'I am honoured? I am sorry? I am an ex-member of the Irken Elite and I'm going to... what? What do I say?'_ His mind came up dreadfully short. His mouth opened and shut again, with no other sound emerging beyond a rather foolish "... Oh."

Gaz looked up at him. She studied him silently for a long moment, then threw her head back and laughed. 

The sound sent chills up Zim's spine-- only because ever since Tak had come to the planet over four years previous he had come to associate female laughter with bad and terrible things. It was partly why Gaz' laughter had set him on edge the night before. After a moment however, he cautiously cracked a smile. When Gaz continued to chuckle, he threw back his head and laughed as well. 

Gaz stopped laughing nearly instantly, Zim did too, his eyes widening. Gaz frowned a bit as she looked the alien up and down. Then she sighed and went back to her food. 

"What is it?" Zim questioned nervously. "Why did you stop laughing?" 

Gaz shrugged. "Because I'm not really happy," She mumbled. There was a significant pause. "And neither are you." She added as she looked at him out of the side of her face. 

Zim blinked. Then he put down his fork. "Of course I'm happy." He said. Suddenly he leapt up on the table, ignoring Gaz' embarrassed hiss to sit back down, threw his arms wide and announced. "I am HAPPY!" 

Silence descended upon the cafeteria. Gaz put her head in her hands. Zim sat down proudly, enjoying the random calls of "way to go man" and "good on ya" and "pothead" from the half-stunned occupants of the cafeteria.

"I wish you hadn't done that." Gaz muttered from behind her hands when Zim re-took his seat. 

"I thought you didn't care what people thought about you," Zim returned at her, confused at her embarrassed reaction to his behavior. 

Gaz looked up from her hands. "You're right," She replied. "I don't." With that she returned her attention to her food, picking up her fork and stabbing violently at her peas. 

"It not like the Dib-human to miss skool," Zim noted after a moment. 

Gaz shook her head in agreement. A pea went flying. Gaz watched it go, then continued the brutal stabbing. 

"Do you think he's okay?" Zim asked. 

Gaz shrugged. "Eh."

Zim tried again, finding this trying to communicate with relative unresponsiveness vaguely frustrating, but refusing to give up so easily. After all he was ZIM... and all that. "Are you okay?" He asked. 

Gaz shrugged again. 

Zim let out a little huff of frustration. Then -- "Would you please stop stabbing at your peas like that?" the alien asked. "It's giving me the creeps." 

Gaz stopped and looked up at him, surprised. She didn't say anything though. Zim looked at her silently, wondering what he should say next if she wasn't going to say anything. He went though his possibilities for a moment, then realized. She mentioned that she had had a fight with her brother. Her brother wasn't here right now, and she would be walking home alone. Ever since he had come to the earth, Gaz ALWAYS walked to and from skool with Dib. He wondered if it would make her happy if he walked with her home instead, seeing as there was no one else to do it. 

He figured that there wasn't MUCH harm in asking. "Would you like me to walk with you home after skool today?" He asked very cautiously. 

Gaz blinked at him, looking very baffled for a moment. Then she smiled and got to her feet. "That was really unselfish of you Zim," She offered. "Maybe you aren't such a lost cause after all." She added kindly as she picked up her tray. With that she turned and walked away towards the exit.

Zim was so busy trying to interpret Gaz's comment that it took him a couple of moments to register that she was leaving... without having answered his question. "... Wait!" the alien called out after her, flailing his arms about in confusion. "Was that a yes or a no?" 

~~~

Dib didn't know what to do. He had spent the entire day at home, avoiding the holo-dad and pacing around the house. His brilliant mind worked a mile a minute, going after possibility after possibility. He found that the more he thought about what to do about Zim, the more upset he got. And frustrated. By two in the afternoon he was about ready to pull his hair out. 

He considered calling the members of the Swollen Eyeball and telling them when his classes were and telling them how to identify Zim. It would be by far the easiest way to get rid of the alien. He could do it in an instant. But that was also why he hadn't used that option before and refused to use it to this day. Zim was HIS to take out... his alien. He wanted to capture him! Except, until now, he actually hadn't wanted to do that. Not really. Over the years he had found the alien fascinating. He enjoyed their battles of wits, found it intellectually stimulating to chase the alien and break into his base, only to be captured and kicked back out again. And he knew that Zim enjoyed his constant interference as well... at least until recently. 

He had come to the conclusion that this recent development was all just part of the game to the alien. Even if the alien appeared confused at Gaz' overly friendly overtures, he couldn't help but to think that it was related to the alien's real intention. His real goal must have been to steal Gaz from him by befriending her. Who knows what he would do to her, who knows what vile purpose he had in mind for the girl. He shuddered, remembering the kiss at the kitchen table that morning. He also remembered the various animals he had seen in suspended animation around Zim's lab the one or two times he had actually been able to break deep enough into the underground base to reach those labs. Heck, he had been placed in suspended animation often enough the one or two times when Zim had captured him after he had broken into his lair. He shivered. He had been lucky enough to escape, but he didn't want to think of his sister in that kind of situation. 

He also didn't want his sister to just disappear, especially if he wasn't sure if he could get her back again. Despite stubbornness and occasional bitchiness on her behalf, she was just about the only friend he had. She WAS the only confidant he had. She was also the only one besides him that knew that Zim was an alien. It was just that she didn't care. 

Well she should. Gritting his teeth, Dib returned to pacing. Everytime his mind went over the possibilities of what to do about Zim, they always returned to the same conclusion. He had to take the alien out. And when he did, he would find out what that nasty Irken had done to his sister. And then he'd reverse it somehow. 

But how would capture his alien...? 

And then it occurred to him. He didn't need to wait until Zim was back in the safety of his base. He would prepare... and lay in wait...

~~~

"Thank you." Gaz said once they had reached her front porch. She turned back around to look at Zim where he stood behind her. 

Zim cocked his head to the side. "For what?" He asked, genuine confusion on his face. 

Gaz raised an eyebrow. "For walking me home?" She returned. 

"Oh." Zim suddenly thrust his fist in the air. "It was nothing for ZI--" He paused as Gaz suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth. "Mmph?" He asked behind the hand. 

"The response you use is 'You're Welcome'," Gaz explained, sounding slightly exasperated as she often did recently while explaining things to Zim. Then she removed her hand. Leaning down she gave the alien a kiss on the cheek. Zim wondered vaguely what he should do when it took her a while to pull away, and finally opted on running a somewhat affectionate claw through her short purple hair. 

She was smiling again, he noted, as she finally did so. He liked it when she smiled. Usually humans were harmless when they smiled... well except for Dib, who had a rather evil look about him when he smiled at him... 

A flash and a very distant rumbling sound of thunder interrupted his thoughts. Gaz gave the sky a slightly nervous look, taking in the darkening clouds that had grown more and more menacing as they walked home from the skool. "You'd better hurry back to your base," she said finally, turning back to Zim and pushing him away from her gently. "It might rain."

Zim nodded dumbly. 

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Gaz asked from the doorway. 

Zim nodded dumbly again and watched as she walked into her house. Then he turned and slowly walked away. 

Gaz thought dark thoughts to herself as she closed the door behind her and hung up her coat. She didn't know what she was thinking. Zim was still an alien, no matter how she felt for him. And she didn't even know *how* she felt for him exactly. She was confused. She liked him but... was she right to even think about hitting on him? It was obvious the alien didn't understand. He barely put up with it, and it scared him, if this morning and last night were any indication.

Not only that she was treading on very dangerous ground where her brother was concerned. Her brother's response to her interest in Zim had weighed heavy in her mind all day. He still didn't know that Zim was absolutely no threat to her or the planet... and she couldn't tell him about what Zim had told her... it wasn't her right to say. But she could TELL that Zim was different just by the way he acted. He acted like he actually wanted to be a part of the human race... not destroy it. Dib was refusing to see that, as the stupid way he prattled about Zim laying eggs in her stomach obviously indicated. The fact that he hadn't come to skool that day had bothered her too. She was torn between feeling concerned and continuing to be upset at the fact that he had had the gall to try to tell her what to do with her interests at breakfast that morning. 

"Hello?" She questioned into darkened house as she hung up her jacket. She moved out of the foyer....

... And didn't get any further. A sudden movement to her left told her that Dib was in the living room, and a sudden sharp pain welling up from her arm told her that he had struck her with something. Startled she looked down at her arm, just in time to see Dib remove a needle from it. 

"What...?" She began, outraged. She tried to turn, to hit her brother, or do something, but her muscles seized up. She couldn't move. Her view on the world started to tilt as she fell forwards. Strong arms came up to catch her, before she could hit the floor. And then she knew no more. 

"I'm sorry sis," Dib muttered as he carried the unconscious girl over to the couch. "You're going to have to kill me for this... later." Carefully he laid her down on it. Even though he knew the sedative he had given her was relatively short lived and completely harmless, he quickly checked her pulse anyway to make sure she was okay. She was fine, and her heart beat strong and steady under his fingertips. He nodded once to himself, satisfied, and shouldered his pack. He had preciously little time... he had an alien to catch before he got very far away...


	6. Pain

~~~

**Author's Notes**: I'd like to make mention of my reviewers. I just wanted to thank you all for your constant, kind and helpful reviews. Despite the fact that this is already written, it is certainly a huge motivater towards getting it edited and up faster. Thanks once again... *hugs reviewers* ^_^

**Warnings**: Obviously, as you can more than likely tell by the previous parts, I wrote Dib as the antagonist in this story. This means he's presently the villian so to speak and is going to do some nasty things before things get better. I'm very sorry to all Dib fans. -_-;   
*****This fic is now rated a VERY strong "PG-13" leaning heavily towards "R" thanks to the violence and language content of this last bit of the story. Discretion is advised. (I feel like a TV all of a sudden... O_o)

Part 6 - Pain   
~~~

There he was. Dib smiled at himself as he ducked behind yet another fence. He was so close to him now, and Zim was uncharacteristically oblivious that he was being trailed. The alien appeared lost in thought, unaware that there was a black clad Dib right behind him.

Dib ducked back out from behind the fence and rushed forwards to the next one. It was about then that he felt the first drop fall. Curious, he glanced up at the blackening sky, then looked at Zim, his eyes wide with the implication of what he had felt. 

He knew the alien felt it too as he stopped suddenly, then opened a palm and turned equally wide eyes to the sky. Another drop must have hit the alien because he let out a little scream and began to run in the direction of his base.

_Oh no you don't!_ Dib thought to himself. Not caring if he blew his cover, Dib rushed forwards. He had caught up with the fleeing alien and was within reaching distance of him when Zim finally noticed him. Wide-eyed he turned, saw an evilly grinning Dib approaching him very quickly, screamed again, and ran even faster. 

He wasn't quick enough. Leaping forwards, Dib caught the alien by his shirt and tumbled him to the ground. 

"Get off me!" Zim gasped, turning around and reaching out to push Dib away with frantic hands. He was too late... a sharp pain welled up in his shoulder. He whipped his head just in time to see Dib remove something from it. Letting out a howl Zim knocked Dib off of him and clambered back to his feet. He began to run again, but didn't get very far. In fact he only made it a couple of steps before he pitched forwards and collapsed onto the pavement. 

Breathing slightly hard from his run, Dib ran a fist across his mouth, for the first time tasting blood. "Damn," He muttered, licking his lip. Zim must have landed a punch. Ah well. 

He shrugged and approached the alien cautiously, wanting to make sure that he was completely unconscious before he got too close. He had worked on that sedative for years, trying to find the perfect formula to render the alien unharmed but unconscious for a short amount of time. He was glad he had done so... it had really come in handy today. 

Dib carefully nudged him with his foot. No reaction. Zim was completely out cold. "Perfect," Dib muttered to himself. Shrugging off his backpack, he opened it and took out some rope. 

Ten minutes later Dib stood in the middle of a small park. It had been just down the street from where he had captured Zim. There was no one in this park, and it was surrounded on all sides by trees, secluding the central clearing. Dib couldn't think of a more perfect location. 

He stood above the alien, relishing the small drizzle of rain that was slowly making its way down from the sky. Zim's skin was already starting to smoke. Smirking, he folded his arms across his chest and waited. 

He didn't have to wait very long. Zim came to with a start and a simultaneous scream several seconds later. For a moment the alien just lay there, blinking his wide red eyes at his decidedly horizontal view on the world, then he began to jerk about. Dib watched him, amused. Zim quickly discovered that he couldn't move his arms, or his legs... and he couldn't open the pod doors on his Pak either, (Dib had been sure to render that useless as well.) The alien let out an indignant howl and thrashed... which did exactly nothing. 

Someone laughed. Distressed, Zim turned blood red eyes upwards and stared. Dib stood above him, grinning and holding Zim's human disguise in hand. 

"Looking for this?" Dib asked, tossing the wig and contacts into the mud at his feet. 

Zim stared for a long moment. Then his antennae fell back against his head. Dib was pleased to see something that resembled fear flash across the alien's face. It was gone very quickly though. "What do you want filthy stink-beast?" Zim snapped at him, the contempt in his voice very obvious. 

Dib smirked and crouched down next to the alien. "Ah," He said almost playfully. "That's a bit more like the Irken Invader I know." He reached out and patted Zim on the head, which caused the alien to cringe away ever so slightly. "I want you dead." Dib said seriously, his smile fading. He glanced up at the sky and then back again. "I imagine that will happen soon enough, though." 

Zim stared at him incredulously, then screamed a couple of times as rain continued to patter down on him. When he was done screaming he turned a withering glare up at the eldest Membrane child. "I've done nothing to you human!" He snarled. 

Dib glared at him. "Yeah RIGHT Zim," He returned. "What about all those times you tried to kill me, huh?" He began to list, checking off on his fingers as he went. "Humiliated me in front of the class? Experimented upon me?" He stopped checking off and waved his arms about angrily. "Tried to feed me to your robot?!" 

Zim looked at him, a rather disbelieving look etched across his alien face. "That was years ago Dib!" He protested. 

"That was two months ago!" Dib returned. 

"You broke into my base!"

"You were trying to blow up the planet! Again!"

"I wasn't--" Zim shook his head slightly. This argument was pointless and it was getting him no closer to being free. "Let Me GO Dib." Zim ordered darkly after a moment. His teeth clenched and he began to breathe funny as the sky continued to rain corrosive H2O down upon him. At least he wasn't screaming anymore, Dib thought to himself. 

Dib shook his head at the alien. "Not until you answer some of my questions." He replied. 

"What questions could you possibly want from ZIM?" Zim was beginning to grow impatient and the pain was only getting worse. "Stinking human, you already KNOW..." Zim gasped, the pain suddenly becoming unbearable. "AHHH!!!" He screamed, twitching compulsively. "It burns! It_ burns!_" 

So much for him not screaming any longer. "Shut up," Dib snapped, kicking the alien in the gut. 

Zim recoiled, gasping. He did as he was told, coughing painfully instead. 

"Now," Dib continued, crouching back down next to the smoking alien. "Tell me Zim," He hissed. "What have you DONE to my sister?" 

Zim looked shocked. "Your sister?" He returned. "Gaz?" When Dib nodded, Zim shook his head vigorously. "FOOL!" He ranted. "I have done nothing to her!" 

"Bull Zim!" Dib snapped. Reaching out he grasped the hem of the alien's shirt. "Tell me what you did to my sister!" he shouted over the rain. He cocked his fist. 

The shocked look returned, this time it was full of confusion and pleading as the blood red eyes shot from Dib's fist and to his face again. "I did nothing to her, Dib-human..." Zim said, sounding very confused. 

For a moment-- a very tiny moment-- Dib wondered if Zim was perhaps telling the truth. He just seemed so lost... 

No. No, he wouldn't be fooled. Instead of punching the helpless alien, Dib grabbed his shirt with the other hand and yanked him even closer. "Uh-huh," He scoffed. "Yeah. Sure. All of a sudden my sister decides that you are the sexist... THING on the face of the planet." He drawled dryly. His eyes narrowed. "Why Zim? No reason?" 

Zim nodded. "Yes. No. I don't know!" He threw his head back, gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes against the agony of the biting corrosive rain. He had no time for this. "Pleeeeasseee...." He finally begged. "Let me gooooooo...."

Dib let out a short bark of laughter and shook the small alien slightly. "No Zim. I'm NOT going to let you go." His eyes gleamed... he actually quite enjoyed watching the alien in misery. He brought his face down really close to Zim's again and waited until the red eyes opened again and stared at him. "No Zim," He hissed. "I've waited too long for this." With that he really did punch the alien, putting years of frustration and pent up rage behind the blow. He rocked back on his heels as Zim fell back into the mud with an odd squishing sound. 

Ow. Dib stood and massaged his sore hand. After a moment he leaned forwards again. "You messed up Zim," He continued as he emotionlessly watched as the alien gasped and twisted about on the ground, fighting for breath and in obvious pain. "What did you do?" He continued to question, "Drag her into your labs and perform experiments upon her? Are you using hypnosis? Did you put something in her food?" 

There was no reply from the alien. Dib watched in pretend disinterest as boils began to appear on the alien's smoking skin along his bare arms and face. Zim whimpered, twisting and wiggling in the dirt, his face contorted in obvious and considerable pain and suffering. After a moment Dib realized that Zim had not answered him. 

He kicked him, HARD, enticing another gasp from the alien. "TELL ME WHAT YOU DID TO HER!" He screamed down at him. 

"Nothing..." was the stuttered reply. "I did nothing..."

"BULLshit ZIM!" He kicked him twice more in rapid succession. 

No reply except for strained gasps for breath as Zim continued to writhe. The drops continued to fall on the shaking alien. Zim twitched, his entire body taut and trembling with agony. Dib found he could only watch, fascinated, as the alien began to go into convulsions. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice told him that Zim couldn't take much more of this. Another, much more sadistic voice wanted to know how much longer it would take until the alien was unconscious. Dead? Didn't he want him dead? 

Didn't he? 

Unsure of himself suddenly, he crouched back down beside him quickly. Putting a hand on his shoulder, he shook him roughly. "Tell me Zim!" Dib snapped. Despite himself, a faint hint of desperation had crept into his voice. He heard it and winced slightly. 

Zim froze. He heard it too. 

The alien's eyes opened a crack and he turned his head a slight bit to glare up at Dib. "Stupid-- foolish-- human..." The alien spat. "This isn't about your sister, is it?" he stated, glaring all of his hatred up at Gaz's brother. "This is about you..."

Dib's brow creased suddenly. "No," he replied. "Its..."

Zim shut his eyes and shook his head ever so slightly. "No-- Dib," He said with disdain between ragged gasps for breath. "No. This is about you and me. It was never about Gaz. I won't hurt your sister... I HAVEN'T hurt your sister, and you KNOW that. Don'tcha Dib?" He sneered. "Don't you? You pathetic WASTE of a human, you just want an excuse to kill ZIM..." He drew in a shuddering breath, and looked down at himself, at his blackening skin and sopping state. He let out a pained keening sound in the back of his alien throat and his mouth and eyes fell closed for a moment. It was only after a weary looking struggle that he managed to reopen them. He coughed, a fine trickle of deep green blood flowing from the corner of his mouth. After a moment or so, when he spoke again, his voice was quiet and defeated sounding. Which was about as far as removed as any other tone of voice Dib had ever heard the egotistical alien use. "I was dying if you must know," He said impassively. "I was dying and..." A sudden rattling coughing fit interrupted the alien's words and Zim had to pause a moment to regain his breath again, swallowing back the Irken blood that threatened to pour from his mouth. "... and then your sister-- Gaz, decided to come a long and... SAVE me..." He ruby colored eyes slid closed for a lingering moment then re-opened, turning to glare at Dib full force. "I wanted to die!" Zim suddenly hissed at him. He foamed and sputtered, but the menace in Zim's eyes did not change and Dib rocked back on his heels at the absolute venom in them. "Stuck here, on this FILTHY ball of rock, forced to live among you DISGUSTING earth-creatures..." He sputtered to a halt, his eyes rolling back and gasping several times before he continued. "Well _human_? Are you proud of yourself?" Zim reopened his eyes and spat his words up at him, the contempt in his voice clear. "Are you happy? You got your wish... looks like I really am going to die, filthy creature. Congratulations DIB, you WON..." 

The alien blinked and suddenly his eyes looked more sad than anything else. For a long moment the alien just sat there in the mud... his skin sizzling black with every drop from the sky. Dib looked at him soundlessly, speechless for once in the wake of Zim's outburst. 

Eyes flicking from his own skin to Dib's eyes, Zim's pleading red eyes searched his. His antennae fell back against his head again in a defeated, frightened gesture. He drew in a shuddering breath. And then another. "I don't want to die..." the alien finally whispered in a low voice. He gasped for air, his breathing becoming more and more difficult in the wake of his liquid filling lungs. "Tell... your sister... that I... I'm..." he could not finish his sentence past the dark green blood that had filled his mouth to over flowing. Zim let out one last choking gargle, then finally his body gave out, his eyes falling closed again and his head fell back into the mud. 

For a short moment that seemed to last an eternity Dib stared down at the alien. It was finally after that moment that something clicked inside of his head. Zim wasn't moving. He wasn't sure, but he didn't think Zim was breathing anymore either. 

_I killed him_, a smug voice said somewhere in the back of his mind. When something inside of Dib recoiled in horror at the thought, another voice inside of him spoke up in defense. _Whop-tee do. It's no big loss. One less alien bent on world domination. You've been wanting to do this since Grade Skool. Wasn't that exhilarating? Makes you feel just like a kid again..._ And then yet another chimed in-- _Your sister may never speak to you again, but who cares, right? Right? Zim was never HERS to begin with. Just because he claimed that she saved his life, doesn't mean... _

And finally a last voice decided to add its thoughts. This voice sounded suspiciously like Gaz. _You *bastard*..._ it said in Gaz's grating voice. _He didn't want to die! You killed him and he didn't want to die! You *killed* him...!!_

Dib finally reacted. "I can't do this..." he muttered out loud. He made up his mind. Throwing off his backpack, he reached inside and fumbled for his pocket knife. He was going on negative time, he realized as he began to saw through the rope that bound Zim's hands. Swearing again he swiftly pocketed the knife and reached down. Grabbing Zim by his waist he hoisted him up and slung the small and relatively light body across his shoulders. Then he was off, running as fast as he could towards the street. 

~~~

Gaz moaned softly as she slowly came too. For a moment or so she stared at the living room ceiling, wondering where she was and how she got there. Then she remembered someone... or rather someone's face. 

It was Dib's face. Dib... what did he have to do with anything? She frowned, momentarily puzzled... her brain foggy with the slowly retreating effects of the drug. She vaguely remembered coming home and walking in the door. Then she remembered calling out to him, wondering where he was. 

Her eyes widened as more and more of her last memories came back to her. She also remembered the shape pain in her arm and the glimpse of him she had gotten before she had blanked out. She remembered the look on his face too... that jaw set in determination and the fact that he was dressed in all black. He was geared up... obviously with the intentions of going somewhere... 

She struggled to sit up, and finally managed to do so, much more slowly then she would have liked. She cursed softly under her breath. She rubbed at her arms as sharp pins and needles decided to crawl up them as they slowly regained feeling. 

As she sat, she thought about it more. Dib was going somewhere. But where? Where at 3:30 in the afternoon? 

And then a blinding flash a lit the room. She listened as the thunder rolled. As she listened she realized that she was also hearing the sound of falling rain as it pattered against the windows. 

Rain. Why was that significant?

It occurred to her with horrific clarity. "Zim." She whispered out loud. Dib was after Zim. That's why he had knocked her out. And if Zim out in this rain...

She looked up at the Membrane clock on the wall and took in the time. 

4:05. On a good day her and Dib usually got home around 3:30. Her and Zim HAD walked slowly home today, but she couldn't hope for it to have been any later than about 3:40 when she walked in the door. 

25 minutes. Even though she was glad that the effects of the sedative had only worked for half of an hour, she was horrified at the thought of what Dib might have done in that amount of time. 

She leapt to her feet, only to pitch forwards again, nearly kneeling over. After a moment most of the numbness passed and Gaz was able to push away from the couch. 

He wouldn't kill him... would he?

Would he?? 

"Damn you Dib, I'd better find him alive when I find you... and then I'm going to make you PAY for what you did to me...." The determined girl cursed her brother left right and center as she dragged her partly unresponsive body across the room. She stopped briefly in the kitchen and reached underneath the counter, extracting a little box. She removed a key from it and headed towards the back door. 

By the time she had reached the garage most of the feeling had returned to all of her limbs... which was good... because she needed them. Grumbling she trekked to the back of the garage and yanked the tarp off of her father's old car. Nobody ever used the old car... partly because it was a relic and worth a lot of money, and partly because, well. Her family suffered from extreme apathy and her dad preferred the more modern and extremely hazardous methods of travel... like instant teliportation. 

She still wasn't old enough to drive however. Gaz didn't care though, all that mattered to her was getting to Zim before her brother could do any serious or permanent damage. She could get in trouble for stealing the car later. 

With a squealing screech of tires on slick pavement she was gone. 

~~~

"Damnit, damnit!" Dib cursed under his breath, finally stopping in his mad dash for shelter. He had found a large enough over hang in front of a building across the street from the park. Even so, he didn't think he had been nearly quick enough. He swung Zim's body off of his shoulders, placing him down against the side of the building with an unhealthy wet thump. Ignoring the fact that the alien looked more than a little dead, he crouched down beside him and reached out, slapping the alien's face, which made a sickly squishy noise upon contact with the burnt cheek. "Zim!" He shouted above the sound of the driving rain behind him. "Wake up! ... oh shit..." Dib stared at his hand. His hand had come away with a good deal of skin with it. Disgusted and horrified he rubbed his hand off on his pants and quickly pulled out his pocket knife again. Working as fast as he could, he began to saw through Zim's restraints. "Come on Zim, come on," He chanted as he did so. He tossed the skin layered rope aside as they fell away, leaving deep indentations in the Irken's wrists. He then rocked back on his heels, wiping at his brow wearily. It was then that he saw the twitch. Dib froze. Zim's antennae, he could have sworn they had just moved...

"Zim?" He questioned, eager hope in his voice. There was no reply, nor movement from the rest of Zim's relaxed body, but the antennae twitched ever so slightly again. Relief flooded through Dib. Wondering what else he could do, he noticed that the alien's chest was still smoldering under his sopping shirt. Crouching down Dib grasped the neckline of the shirt and began to saw through that as well, surprised at how hard it was to cut through the odd Irken fabric. 

He was nearly done cutting through the shirt when the alien came too with an odd shuddering gasp of pain. 

Zim's first conscious thought was that he hurt. He hurt more than he had ever hurt before in his very long life. It felt like thousands of little knives were cutting into his skin all over. Then the alien looked down. He took one look down at Dib, who appeared to be earnestly cutting at something, with a knife, down where his BARE abdomen was and panicked. 

"Stop!" He rasped hoarsely, bring unrestrained hands forwards to push weakly at Dib's shoulders. 

Dib's head snapped up, surprised and more than a little bit relieved-- only to find that Zim looked utterly terrified. 

"Stop it, I'm still alive!" The alien screeched, continuing to push at him weakly. He had no strength left, but he was alive... and he was afraid. 

Dib looked confused for a half a second, then he realized what had caused the half conscious alien to panic. "This?" He asked, holding his knife up slightly. 

The alien twisted in his grasp desperately, his eyes tightly shut. "Don't!" He cried out again. 

"Hey!" Dib reached up, grasping the cut sides of Zim's shirt. He shook him until the red eyes reopened and stared at him fearfully. "Stop that!" Dib reprimanded. "I'm trying to help you Zim!" With that Dib dropped the alien and went back to sawing the rest of the shirt off of him. 

After a moment Dib had cut through the rest and pulled it off of Zim, revealing the rest of the raw, pale green skin of a sexless alien chest beneath. He got to his feet and tossed the shirt aside, watching as it fell to the pavement in a wet squelchy thump several feet away. He turned back and visually inspected Zim's pants before realizing that they were no longer smoking, then returned his attention to Zim's face. 

The alien was studying him silently. His arms were hugging himself as he huddled as close to the building as possible. He looked positively naked without his shirt, and his gloves had been removed earlier when Dib had tied the rope into place. Thin Irken fingers curled around his upper arms and he shivered ever so slightly in the cool moist air.

At least he wasn't smoldering any longer. And, Dib noticed upon closer inspection, the blackened and burnt skin on Zim's arms and face appeared to be slowly regaining the green color they had been before Dib had decided to let him get wet. 

For a long moment alien and human looked at each other. Then slowly Dib flicked his switchblade closed and casually stuffed it into his jeans pocket. Walking over to the alien, Dib began to gather up the remnants of rope and other things, stuffing them in his backpack. He was very aware of Zim's suspicious, questioning eyes on him the entire time. 

He shouldered the pack and stood back up. He looked down at his adversary. He was about to open his mouth to say... something... when a sudden screeching of wet tires on the road interrupted him. Surprised both he and Zim looked up as a car barreled to a stop in front of them, half on the curb and half off of it. 

It was Gaz. The girl was out of their father's antique car in an instant and had slammed the door shut after herself. "Dib!" She shouted above the rain. "What the HELL were you thinking?!" Her hands balled into little fists as she marched over to him, coming out of the driving rain and into the shelter the overhang offered. "You better have a reasonable explanation for doing that, you shit," The girl growled, "Or I--" Gaz trailed off with a gasp, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the alien huddled against the building behind Dib. One look at his blackened discolored skin and the fact that he wasn't wearing his shirt and gloves clued her in that something was dreadfully wrong. That and the fact that he looked almost as sickly as he had the time a little over a week previous when she had found him in his lair. "Zim!" She cried out, shouldering past her brother and running to him. 

Dib watched with a bit of fond sadness as his sister ran and crouched beside the alien, concerned... her arms reaching out and around him. "Zim!" She exclaimed. "Zim, what happened? Are you okay? Did Dib do something to you?" A half a glance at her brother out of the corner of her eye, and the expression on her face told Dib everything that he needed to know about the hell he would pay if she found out that he had done something to Zim. In fact he was already more than dead for drugging her. Dying one more time won't hurt, He reflected ruefully.

"Zim??" Gaz shook the alien slightly when no reply was to be found. "Zim, talk to me!" She ordered. 

The alien recoiled slightly at the barrage of questions. Then he glanced at Dib as well, the expression on his face unreadable before the gaze returned to Gaz. "I'm fine," The alien said smoothly, a hint of the old vigor returning to his voice. "Just got caught in some PIT-I-FUL earth rain, that's all." He smiled winningly at the Dib-sister. "Dib-human helped me out a little." He made a vague motion with a clawed hand at his soiled cut up shirt. 

Dib watched as the most relieved expression he had ever seen flash across his sister's face. It lasted only a second or so, but it told Dib all he needed to know. She really did care for the extraterrestrial. A lot. Shit. This time he managed to keep the revulsion, which was already much less than that morning, down. Shaking his head he turned away. 

Gaz's voice followed him. "Good," The girl said, "But he is still going to PAY for what he did to me..." 

Dib made a vague motion behind himself in his sister's general direction. "Later Gaz," He called back at her. "I'll see you at home-- you can kill me then." He added after a moment. 

He hesitated suddenly, then paused and turned back. Both Gaz and Zim were staring at him. Gaz still looked as mad as hell... but Zim looked uncertain. Of course how was he to react to the boy who tortured him, nearly killed him, then decided to save him? For a moment Dib thought, then shrugged, then turned and walked back over to the couple. As he walked he took off his bag and trench coat and shook the latter off. It was water proof and the inside was still dry. He approached the still crouching alien and with a little bit of gentle prodding, managed to get him to lean away from the wall and carefully swung the coat over his bare shoulders. 

Zim blinked at him, looking utterly confused as clawed hands came out and cautiously pulled the fabric to himself. Dib only shrugged and stood upright again after a moment. 

"I'm done, Zim." He said finally. He shrugged again and turned to go, but not before waving a hand in the general direction of the car that Gaz had jacked. "You'd better get that back in one piece Gaz, or there's going to be hell to pay when dad gets home." 

He ignored his sister's sharp-tongued retort as he continued to walk away. Instead he trudged on in a homewardly direction with his head bowed as he thought, the cool rain pounding against his back. He didn't mind that he was getting wet... at least the rain couldn't hurt him.


	7. Hope

**Warning**: Gaz is Out of Character for part of this. I hope it's not too bad... and to quote my room-mate, she IS human after all. (We think. ^_^)  
This is the last part. 

~~~

Part 7 - Hope

Gaz managed to get Zim back to his base without getting him wet again, with a little bit of help from Dib's trench coat and her dad's car. The rain was already abating somewhat when she approached the tiny green house and she turned down the setting on the windshield wipers one notch. 

A little white corvette was already parked in front of the house, which forced Gaz to park a house down. She watched, bored and with her fingers drumming against the steering wheel, as a green colored dog walked out of Zim's house and down the steps on his hind legs. She raised both eyebrows when the dog got into the white car.

"Uh... your robot just got into a car," Gaz reported dryly to the person curled up in the back seat. 

"Yes, yes, that is normal," Zim replied, mustering up the effort to wave a hand in the air. He didn't look up though. "He likes to take in human activities at night." 

Gaz watched as the car drove off with a loud squeal of tires on wet pavement, then pulled forwards into the now vacated spot and put the car into park. She turned off the engine. "What *kind* of human activities?" She asked, turning and looking down at Zim. 

The alien, who had had his eyes closed in exhaustion since climbing into the back seat of the Membrane car, cracked one open a slight bit. "I am... not sure." He admitted. "Something called a 'rave' I think." 

Gaz stared for a moment. "You're kidding," She said. Then she shrugged. "Eh." She had definitely seen stranger things in her days. What with her brother a self proclaimed paranormal investigator, and an alien who lived a few blocks away...

Zim re-closed his eyes and relative silence passed where the only noise was the raspy but steady sound of his breathing. After a moment Gaz spoke up again. "Do you want to try for your house?" She asked. 

Zim opened both of his red eyes and looked up. He inspected the window where a thin sheet of rain was continuing to pour down it and shuddered ever so slightly. "Can we stay here until it... eh, goes away... a bit?" He asked hopefully, making a 'go away' gesture with his hand. 

Gaz nodded. "Sure," She replied amiably. She watched as the alien smiled in happy contentment and nestled deeper into Dib's trench coat. 

Gaz frowned again as she turned her head and looked out of the window herself. Her eyes traced the raindrops as they fled in lines down the slick wet pane of glass. The windows were beginning to fog and idly she traced pictures in precipitation. 

She traced a heart shape into the moisture then quickly wiped it out again. She frowned deeper. _'Caring for someone takes a lot of work,'_ she thought to herself gloomily. When she got home from school today, she had hoped for some down time to herself in which she could sulk and gloom over her feelings, and continue to at least pretend to be upset at Dib. She had never expected to be knocked unconscious and then have wake up to have to run out the door in a desperate bid to save a life.

She glanced up, and reached for the rearview mirror, turning it down a bit so that it showed her the small creature in the back. He was curled, with a comfortable look on his face, half drowned in the folds of Dib's trench coat. He was so tiny. Though Zim had mysteriously gained a couple of inches since elementary skool, it wasn't nearly enough to keep up with the other rapidly growing human boys and girls through to high skool. He was now about a head shorter than everyone else, most of the girls included. Which though it didn't make him inhumanly small, it certainly made him stick out. 

"I thought you didn't need sleep," She asked after a moment. 

The red eyes slid open part way. "I don't," The Irken replied. "I'm just resting." The eyes shut again. 

For some reason that caused a strangely soft look cross Gaz's face. It also made her think even more dark thoughts. Like how close, exactly, she had come to losing him that day. Her heart had nearly stopped when she had seen what she had very recently come to dread had apparently come to pass. Zim, her alien, hurt and in pain. And just when he was trying so hard to conform, to become one of a race he never really liked in the first place. She saw red then, and had very nearly leapt on Dib in a rage, when Zim had spoken up in her brother's defense. She almost hadn't believe it if she hadn't seen her brother turn back with her own two eyes and give Zim his trench coat. Dib loved that trench coat. He had whimpered and whined for months when he grew out of the last one years ago, and this one had become just as important to him as the other. 

She sighed and watched the rain. It was abating somewhat, but still... they may be stuck in the car for a little while longer... 

Suddenly she turned, and crawled over the front seat into the back of the car. Zim's eyes reopened to watch her. After some wiggling Gaz managed to squeeze herself into the small space between the front seat and the back. She placed herself down on the floor of the car and settled herself. After a moment she laid her head on her arms on the seat, her face inches away from Zim. "Hello," She mumbled. 

The surprised and somewhat curious look on Zim's face faded back to tired satisfaction. "Hello... filthy human," He replied. 

Gaz surprised herself by laughing at the familiar insult. She playfully thumped the alien on the shoulder.

Actually, if she stopped to think about it, the whole entire thing was deserving of some laughter. Here she was, a 15 year old girl in the back seat of a fogged up car she had stole from her solitary parent, with a boy she liked, who also just happened to be an alien-thing; all as the rain beat a soft pattern on the windshield in a very romantic sort of way. It was perfect. Granted it certainly wasn't where she saw herself five years ago, (she saw herself in all sorts of ways, but never with an alien boy and with romantic added into the mix), but it was funny none-the-less. 

Still smiling she reached out. She traced her black painted fingers along Zim's cheek, pleasantly surprised when he didn't jerk away at all. He didn't even flinch. "The green has returned to your cheeks, alien," She noted dourly. 

The eyes had drooped back down to half way again. "I am ZIM," the alien returned matter of factly. "... I heal fast." 

Gaz chuckled and shook her head. She continued to trace small patterns across the alien's skin in a slow languid gesture, her fingers soft as they ghosted across Zim's skin. The skin was smooth and poreless beneath her fingertips, almost leathery and pleasant to the touch. 

Her fingers traveled upwards, brushing across his forehead, then over, to the antennae. These were very different to the touch; hard, coarse and grooved beneath her fingers. In light of the fact that she wasn't getting any protests, she took one between her thumb and forefinger, drawing them up gently. 

Suddenly Zim reacted, his eyes falling closed as he tilted his head back. "Mmmm." He mumbled. Gaz stopped moving her hand halfway up the antennae, and gave the alien a questioning look. 

One of Zim's hands carried up to lay across her wrist, neither holding her hand in place nor drawing it away. His blood red eyes reopened languidly and peered at her. "That feels good," he explained past the contented smile on his face. 

For a moment Gaz considered that. Then something inside her chest flip-flopped. "Oh." Flushing suddenly, she went to remove her hand, only to have Zim's fingers tighten on her wrist ever so slightly. 

"Its okay." Zim said seriously. After a moment he seemed to realize that he was holding her wrist in place and, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like an apology, withdrew his hand quickly. 

On a whim, Gaz reached out and caught it before it could disappear back into the folds of Dib's trench coat. Zim let her have his hand... or at least didn't try to jerk it away. Curious now, she traced the thin pale fingers with her own. The fingers were so tiny and thin, almost skeletal, and there was one less of them than found on a human hand. She brought her other hand up and curved the fingers forwards gently, raising an eyebrow as they seemed to naturally fall into the clawed shape she was so used to. Zim held them there for a moment then made a small swiping motion in the direction of her face. She caught the hand and laughed, pleased. Still holding the hand between both of hers, she turned to look at Zim. 

The alien's eyes were still half closed and he was watching her with an enduring look on his face. 

Smiling, Gaz decided that since he was tolerating her she was going to continue, and went back to playing with the hand, and further still, tracing her fingers down to the wrists. 

She stopped suddenly, her smile fading. "What's this?" She questioned, taking Zim's wrist and moving it up so that she could see it better in the dim light coming from outside the car. 

Zim's eyes widened. "Nothing!" He said quickly, jerking his wrist away. 

Gaz went for them again. "Where those... rope marks?" She asked incredulously. She could have sworn she saw two rows of grooved indentations on Zim's wrist. From the quick glimpse of it she had gotten they had looked like they went all the way around...

Zim was sitting up now, and scooted right across the back of the car to press against the inside of the door on the other side. "No!" He said again. "No, no of course not!" He waved a hand about in a dismissive gesture. "Don't be silly-- ahhh!!" He jumped as Gaz grabbed for his waving hand. She caught it and a small struggle ensued. Gaz finally managed to wrestle the alien into a bit of a neck hold and reclaimed a wrist. She studied the marks for a long moment, then caught the other wrist to confirm what she saw. Zim stopped struggling and sighed. 

Finally Gaz let him go. She backed off a bit and frowned at Zim, her eyes flashing with anger. "You lied to me," She said, her voice soft and dangerous. 

Zim shook his head. "It's not what you think!" He tried quickly.

Gaz's hands balled into fists and her eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah? Then what IS it Zim?" She asked with a growl. 

Zim leant further against the car door and gulped. "Well you see..." he hesitated and fidgeted, his eyes darting about nervously. "I mean..."

Gaz folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. "Tell me the TRUTH Zim," she snapped. Suddenly something occurred to her and she blinked. "Why the hell did you cover for him anyway?" She asked, incredulous.

Zim sighed and looked down. "It's complicated." The alien mumbled. 

Gaz's jaw dropped. She was across the car and face to face with Zim in an instant. "WHAT'S complicated about it?" She breathed.

Zim stared at her wide-eyed. "It's just-- I mean... I didn't...!" He gestured frantically. "I didn't want you to knoowww..." He finally said, his voice ending in a whine. 

He flinched as Gaz raised a fist. "Why Zim?!" She demanded to know. "Why not? Tell me or I **swear** I'll break something..." The instant the words left her mouth she regretted them. Zim's eyes grew very large and he cringed away, both of his hands held out in front of himself defensively. 

Gaz forced herself to calm. She shut her eyes and nodded, then reached out. "Hey," she said in a slightly exasperated, but much kinder voice. She fingered a cheek, mentally kicking herself when Zim twitched away. "I'm not really going to hurt you Zim," she grumbled at him.

The alien blinked. "No, no of course not." Zim said, patting her hand away. He sounded relieved anyway. 

"... So are you going to tell me?" Gaz asked him, replacing her offending hand in her lap. She raised an eyebrow pointedly. 

The alien looked at her solemnly. "I didn't want you to be angry at him," He said finally in a tiny voice. 

Gaz's jaw threatened to drop again. All thoughts of remaining calm swiftly fled from her mind. "Angry at him?" the girl shouted. "He DRUGGED me Zim!" She went to shake her fist, but stopped herself before she did. "How on earth did you think that I wouldn't be angry at him?" 

Zim stared at her for a long moment. Then he looked down again. "I don't know." He muttered. 

Gaz grunted. Reaching out she carefully extracted one of Zim's hands from his lap and studied the wrist. The alien let her patiently. "I'm going to kill him," she said after inspecting the half-healed rope marks carefully. "What did he do, tie you up and leave you to be rained on somewhere?" 

Zim shook his head. "Yes. And no. Gaz..." He shook his head at her in earnest. "Don't kill him." 

Gaz snorted and dropped the wrist. He was STILL trying to protect her brother. She folded her arms back across her chest. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't Zim," She grumbled at him. 

Zim looked at her. "Because he doesn't understand," the alien said finally. 

Gaz threw her hands in the air. "UnderSTAND??" she shouted, coming dangerously close to loosing her temper again. "What's there to understand?!"

"Everything! Nothing!" Zim reached out and grasped her shoulders. "Listen to ZIM!" He said desperately. "Listen to meee!" 

Gaz blinked, opening both of her eyes wide. "... okay." She agreed after a moment. 

Zim nodded, satisfied, and leaned back again. "You humans are worse than caredian wummats." He explained. "You can't change rules for humans unless you explain the changes out in INTIMATE detail. I didn't actually TELL the Dib-human that I was done fighting with him... and then I start hanging out with you, his sister. Of COURSE he's going to think I'm going to do something horrible to you!" He made a gesture with one of his hands. "Or something..." 

The anger on Gaz's face faded to something much more uncertain. "... Is that what he thought?" She asked after a moment. "That you where going to do something horrible to me?" 

A fleeting smile crossed Zim's face. "Yes," He replied. He absently massaged a wrist. "He was very concerned about you." He added kindly. 

Gaz sighed. "Stupid Dib. I can't believe..." She sighed again and pressed a forefinger and thumb against the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. For a long moment she remained like that, as if warding off a massive headache. "I still want to kill him," She said after a moment, the tone of her voice weary. She *was* wearied, and uncertain thoughts and emotions she wasn't used to were battering around inside of her head. "Just for being so *stupid*..." 

A hand touched her arm. Another joined it and finally Zim laid his head against her upper arm briefly. "Don't," The alien said before straightening again. "Please." 

Gaz blinked and reached over to pat the alien on the shoulder. "Yeah sure," She replied, more surprised than anything. "Boy you've changed," She remarked. Looking down at him she almost missed the old Zim, who couldn't stand touch and would laugh with manic glee if someone said something like 'I want to kill Dib'... 

"I had to. To survive." Zim replied honestly. He craned his neck up to look at her. He grinned. "I've become very good at this surviving-thingy... you've helped." His smile faded. "Don't be angry at your brother," He asked again seriously. 

Gaz alternated between being tired and being frustrated and finally opted on an odd combination of both. "Okay, okay," she huffed. "... I still don't know why you're defending him," she added after a moment. 

Zim looked away. "I'm just tired of fighting," He replied honestly. He looked back at Gaz. "Your brother was looking out for you. You can't fault him for that. If there is something else I've leant about you humans is you like to look out for one another... look at Dib. He defended not only you, but the entire human race for YEARS... which was a tremendous effort... especially against the likes of ZIM!..." he trailed off and looked up at the window. "Hey!" He exclaimed. "The rain stopped!" He jumped up excitedly and went for the handle. "Victory for ME!!" 

Then again, maybe he hadn't changed much. Shaking her head slightly, Gaz followed the hyper little alien out the door. 

~~~

Dib was sitting silently at the kitchen table, still mulling over the days events when his sister finally came home about two hours later. He heard the car first as Gaz parked it in the back. Then he listened as the girl came in the front way and hung up her coat. She approached, her footsteps stopping at the entrance to the kitchen. Dib didn't look up. 

There was a long moment of silence. Then Gaz spoke.

"You tried to kill him," She said. It was a statement of fact.

He didn't deny it. He still didn't look up, unwilling to meet her eyes. Instead he looked down, turning his hand over and studied the palm... tracing the lifeline idly with the index finger of the other hand. Zim had lied for him. She wasn't supposed to have found out. But then of course she would have found out. His sister *wasn't* dumb. 

"I saw his wrists," Gaz continued when her brother didn't reply, her mouth pressed into a firm straight line. There was more silence. She sighed. "He's going to be okay," She said. 

"I know." Dib mumbled. He did. He hadn't spent the last five years studying Zim for nothing. He knew that Zim healed faster than any human did. Something about his alien anatomy... or perhaps something in the technology in his pak kept him going. That didn't help him feel any better about what he had done, but still... 

Gaz sighed when it became apparent that Dib wasn't going to respond to her beyond a "I know". Walking over to the table she deposited Dib's trench coat onto it. Dib schooled a flinch, waiting for his sister to lash out at him. 

"That was a horrible thing to do Dib," She said softly after a moment. Dib looked up at her, surprised. Gaz didn't look angry... though that didn't mean anything, she could easily get mad fast enough. But instead his sister just looked tired. She gave him a long searching look before continuing. "You're not in elementary skool anymore." She said pointedly.

Dib looked away. Abruptly he shoved his chair back and got up from the table. "Damn it Gaz, I know that, I..." 

"Life isn't one huge conspiracy out to get you Dib," Gaz continued calmly. "Or me." 

Dib opened his mouth and closed it again. He turned and looked at his sister. She merely looked back at him, the same somewhat tired expression on her face. 

"Gaz?" He questioned after a moment. When all she did was look at him, he pressed on, confused. "Why aren't you mad?" He asked. 

Gaz stepped forwards. Dib automatically stepped back a step. Gaz stepped forwards again, all the while backing her brother towards a wall. Dib started when he bumped into it. "I *am* mad Dib," she said calmly, her voice now deadly as she continued to advance on him. She reached him, and reached out, gathering up his shirt on either side of his neck in fists. "So incredibly mad at you. I could kill you you know. Rip off your limbs, one by one." She paused, taking in the alarmed look on his face for a moment before leaning close and continuing. "But I'm not going to." The alarmed look on Dib's face didn't decrease any with that revelation. 

"You're so stupid," Gaz said with almost no heat to her voice. Then her hands tightened. "You stupid blind JERK, all you care about is your stupid paranormal shit-- you can't even see things in front of your own face..." Emotion filled her face and she stood up on tip toe, so that her face was only inches away from Dib's. "Well you know what Dib?" She breathed. "I hate you." Her hands released their fists, and came back down again to thump once against his chest. "I hate you, I hate you," She thumped back down on her heels and her forehead fell against Dib's chest. "I--" Her voice broke and she let out an odd wrenching sob, crumpling loosely against him. 

Dib froze. Then the realized what was happening. His sister... his sister was crying. "Gaz..." He began pleadingly, as the choking sounds continued, wondering what on earth he was supposed to do. He had never seen his usually apathetic sister cry about anything, let alone cry about something while leaning against him... 

And it didn't sound like she was going to let up any time soon either. He brought his arms up to wrap them awkwardly around her shoulders. "Shh..." He tried soothingly. "Come on, Gaz..." He tried again, very slightly embarrassed. 

"I can't do this," She finally managed to gasp out between the sobs. "I can't do this, Dib." Her head thumped against his chest again and she gripped the fabric of his shirt harder. "I can't--" Her voice broke again, heralding a new wave of tears. 

Sighing, he pressed his cheek against her hair. "Can't what?" He asked gently. 

"Fuck you Dib," she replied between gasps of breath. "I wanted to help him." She gripped his shirt and glared up at him out of reddened eyes. "I don't know why, but I wanted to anyway. I *cared*." She repeated. Gaz managed to look plenty scary, despite the tears rolling down her cheeks. "And then you, you fucking asshole, go and play the fucking hero and p-pull a stunt like that..." 

Dib managed a tiny little pained smile as he looked down at her. "Ah..." Was all he said. "... I'm sorry." He added, knowing that he sounded like an idiot. 

"You're sorry? You just tried to kill someone and you're SORRY?" Dib winced and tried to draw back a bit, sure that his sister would get plenty mad now. Surprisingly enough she didn't. Instead her head went down against his shirt again. "I *hate* this..." she said, her grating voice muffled in his shirt. "I hate it..."

"Shh..." Dib murmured. "It's okay." He added, then felt slightly foolish as that comment just caused a fresh wave of tears and curses.

After a while the tears slowed and finally she relaxed, her face still buried in his shirt. Her hands unclenched and she pressed them against him in a half hearted gesture to push him away then ended up remaining there. He continued to hold his sister as her smallish frame was wracked with small after shocks. He leant his head back and looked up at the ceiling and just continued to hold her. This is the first time I've ever hugged Gaz by choice he reflected mildly. It was oddly... nice. His family was one of the least touchy-feelly families in the world... he could count on one hand the amount of times that his father had ever hugged him or said he loved him. Same went for Gaz and his mother... well he had been too young to remember his mom... 

After a moment Gaz calmed down completely and slowly pushed away from Dib. Dib looked at her. 

"I can't believe I just did that," Gaz mumbled, wearily rubbing at an eye. "I guess I'm just really tired." She explained after a moment. She studied the floor. "Didn't get much sleep last night." 

_Why?_ Dib thought. _What was she..._ he cut off his thought, shaking his head slightly. It really shouldn't matter to him what his sister was doing the night before. _It doesn't concern you,_ he reminded himself.

"... And I just had a really shitty day, no thanks to you." Gaz added. She turned around and wandered across the kitchen in search of a tissue. "I mean it's not often when your brother tries to tell you what to do with your life, drugs you AND tries to kill your friend."

Dib winced mentally. Ouch. 

"And lives to tell about it," Gaz added with a small huff of frustration. She found the Kleenex box on the counter behind one of their father's science experiments and extracted a tissue from it. 

"I said I was sorry, Gaz." Dib studied the floor for a moment then looked back up. He felt more than a little awkward and didn't quite know what to do about it. He definitely wasn't used to this trying to communicate with his sister thing. Hugging was one thing... talking was another. "I..." He hesitated for a moment. "I meant what I said." He finally said. "I did a lot of thinking before you got here and..." He sighed and ran a hand though his unruly hair. "I'm not going to stalk Zim anymore 'kay? It's obvious that he's changed. I mean he hasn't tried to take over the world recently or anything..."

Gaz turned back around and shot him a disbelieving look. "No shit." She said sarcastically. 

Dib glared for a brief moment, then sighed again. "So I made a mistake okay?" He tossed his hands in the air. "I mean it's not like anyone ever tells me anything! How am I supposed to know these things if no one ever TELLS me anything?" 

Gaz blinked, recognizing Zim's statement. 'You humans are worse than caredian wummats. You can't change rules for humans unless you explain the changes out in INTIMATE detail. I didn't actually TELL the Dib-human that I was done fighting with him...'

Gaz sighed herself. "You can always ASK, you know," She mumbled from behind the Kleenex. She blew her nose and tossed it out, before turning back towards the table and taking a seat. 

After a moment Dib wandered across the room and joined her. "I could," The boy agreed neutrally, pulling out a chair himself and sitting in it. 

"So no more trying to kill Zim." Gaz said.

Dib nodded, the stopped. "Well... you know, he may just decide he wants to kill *me*..." 

"He's not going to," Gaz replied quickly. She looked at her brother. "I told you Dib," She said, the frustration evident on her face. "He just wants to be left alone."

Dib managed a bit of a smile. "I know," He replied softly. He did.

"If you must know, he didn't want ME to hurt you," Gaz remarked sourly.

Dib raised an eyebrow. Ah. he thought. Well, that explains why I'm still alive... 

His sister gave him a look out of the corner of her eye. "And what are you going to do if I decide to continue hanging around Zim?" She asked pointedly. 

Dib shrugged. "I'll learn not to care so much?" He offered seriously. At the same time he felt another little wave of sadness run through him. Ah well. It wasn't like he was going to loose his sister completely... after all he still LIVED with her. And she didn't really hate him, or else they wouldn't be having this conversation right now.

"Good." Gaz looked away and drummed her fingers against the table. A moment or so passed. Then-- "You're not going to tell anyone I-- *cried* --are you?" Gaz asked, suddenly finding the pattern in the wood table very interesting. 

That was too much. "Oh _yeah_ Gaz," Dib rolled his eyes. "And who, exactly, am I going to tell? Zim? He'll probably pitch a fit about you leaking corrosive water, and then tell you that you are unworthy of his alien charms and then..." 

"Oh be quiet." Gaz shot her brother a dirty look and got up from the table quickly. It wasn't before Dib saw the faintest hint of red that crawled across Gaz's cheeks. He forced back a smirk. Sadness at 'loosing' his sister aside... now that he had to get used to this whole alien x his sister thing, he realized that this could actually be quite fun. He had never had the opportunity to bug Gaz about BOYS before. She had never liked one of them before. Heck, she had never liked much of anything... 

Gaz ignored the amused look on her brother's face. "I'm going to bed." she muttered. She trekked over to the entrance of the kitchen, then paused. "Disturb me and..." She cut herself short all of a sudden. For a moment she thought then turned back around to look Dib in the eye. "Just don't disturb me, okay?" 

A mild smile crept across Dib's face. "Goodnight Gaz." He replied. 

Gaz gave a little snort and turned and left the room. 

~~~

Dib may have worked things out with his sister somewhat, but he was still... uncertain about going anywhere near Zim the next day at school. 

Gaz and him had walked to school the normal way they usually did... in silence. He was almost relieved to see that his sister had returned to her normal silent grumpy self... at least around him. 

In fact she had remained her normal anti-social self, right up until they had reached the skool and went to walk their separate ways... she had turned back with a "See ya at lunch, Dib?"

All he could manage was a shrug and a "may-be". Lunch invariably meant Zim. He wasn't sure if he could deal with that just yet.

He wasn't mad, just uncomfortable. 

Even so he spent the entire mornings classes psyching himself up for the moment. He practically wrote a script in his head, going over everything from "No hard feelings, 'kay?" and "So my sister has a crush on you..." He rejected those, just like he rejected most of them. But he was determined to at least try. Come on Dib, he thought at himself. You can do this talking thing... it's not THAT hard... 

Lunch came. He gathered up his tray... began to walk across the cafeteria to where Zim and his sister were already seated... and conveniently acquired cold feet right before reaching their table.

He never knew torturing someone nearly to death would lead to such a beautiful array of shame and guilt. It was quite interesting. 

Because of this he recharted his course and instead opted to sit near the far back of the cafeteria and off to the side. As he sat and began to eat his lunch, he watched Gaz and Zim out of the corner of his eye. Occasionally, especially at first they would glance over at him, Gaz especially. After discerning that Dib wasn't coming over to eat with them, Gaz finally turned her attention back to her food. 

It was about then that Dib realized that his sister wasn't reading a book or playing a game. Now curious, he watched-- all the while pretending he wasn't.

He ended up being witness to the oddest thing. Gaz, instead of being anti-social like he had been so used to, was talking with Zim. He couldn't hear them from his vantage point across the cafeteria, but he could see them. Fascinated, he watched as the girl would say something to Zim. Zim would reply... usually after a thinking pause or while waving his arms about to empathize his point. Then Gaz...

Then Gaz would smile. Or laugh. Or just reply seriously after her own thinking pause. And the process would start all over again. After a while it appeared that Zim got the hang of the conversation thing and started asking questions himself. Sometimes he would even laugh as well in response to something Gaz said.

They looked so genuinely happy... happy and content. After a while Dib completely abandoned his meal and watched out of eyes that were no longer clouded by suspicion. For the first time in her life... his sister... his sister was HAPPY. 

"Well I'll be," He muttered. 

He watched as Gaz suddenly picked up a spoonful of potatoes and thrust them towards Zim. He watched as the alien reacted fearfully and flailed about for a moment, then slipped and fell off his chair. Gaz looked slightly unimpressed as the alien disappeared for a moment, then broke down and chuckled as a hand dramatically reached up. It strained and then reached up grasped the table. Zim made a big display of struggling to get back on his chair, then sitting and casually adjusting his wig when he finally managed to do so. He said something, which apparently was so incredibly funny that Gaz had to put her head in her arms to laugh. After a while her head had been down to long and Zim got concerned. The alien leaned over and poked her in the shoulder. Gaz sat up straight suddenly and pretended to mad, scowling at Zim for poking her. She glanced over. 

Their eyes met. 

For a moment they stared at each other, then, flushing, Dib returned his attention to his plate. After a long embarrassed moment, he dared look up again. 

Now his sister AND Zim were looking at him. They didn't look hostile at least; just curious... inquiring... maybe a tiny bit fearful in Zim's case... wondering why he was looking at them. Dib was mortified. He stared back down at his plate for a long moment. Then he sighed. 

"May as well," He muttered dryly under his breath. Biting his lip, he finally decided. Picking up his tray he got up from the table and made the first step towards them. 

--------  
------  
----  
--  
The End


End file.
